Ashes and Rose Petals
by silentman97
Summary: Roman Torchwick was Unkindled, unfit even as kindling for the flame. He would be happy to be a dust thief and nothing more. he was no hero, he knew that. Life would be simple if not for the Demons and Grimm preparing to devour all life in remnant, and with only a few hunters in training and a pack of terrorists it falls to them to fight the demons and light the fire one last time.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note Okay so starting off, this is a crossover between RWBY and the Soulsborne series as a whole, With emphasis on Demon souls and DS3. I'll be plucking bits and pieces from throughout the different games. For those curious as to what point the story branches off into AU, the primary point of deviation begins with the Unkindled giving up and allowing for the Age of Dark to come. there came a new age in the future known as the Age of Dust. This is long after the age of fire faded from memory. Roman Torchwick, the Unkindled who linked the fire twice over and lulled the old one back to it's slumber awoke from his own self imposed rest some seven years ago. He has more or less followed the same events as canon up to the story's commencement.**

 **I suppose I should give some warnings about the themes expressed and such. This story deals with quite some dark topics (human trafficking, mental disorders, substance abuse come later chapters etc.) and I don't plan to sugarcoat any of it for you, there shouldn't be to much explicit stuff but the themes will be present. You have been warned.**

* * *

It was a stormy night in Vale, though the storm could better be classified a hurricane. Thunder roared and lightning crashed while the wind did it's best to throw him any which way it could. It was his favorite kind of weather he supposed, it kept most people who'd bother him well inside and away from him. Indeed it was on these rare occasions that he felt like walking the streets alone, just him and his thoughts.

Sometimes he let his mind return to the lands of Boletaria, the rotted festering blight of a kingdom that first endowed him with the plague of undeath. Most often his thought of Lordran, where he was forged in the fires of the kiln of the first flame and tested against countless demons and monsters. Lastly he need not think hard to remember much of Lothric, the land where the lords of Cinder chose to abandon their thrones and he was consumed in flames one final time. It was these lands where Roman had marched time and time across the twisted broken ruins of embers and ash, fighting through the monsters that defied him to do his duty, slay the Archdemons, fill the lordvessel, or drag the lord's souls back to their thrones where they belonged.

He reminisced with the swirling winds the memories of the numerous monsters he'd slain, all the enemies he'd fought and the pain he'd suffered for. For what, he asked. Nothing had really changed in the end. Sure the beasts were kept out of the city for now, but they'd be back, they always managed to get inside. Somehow they always did, and then the age of dark would approach once more. He supposed he was hardly blameless, after all he'd helped the White Fang get several such beasts inside the city walls himself. Yes he supposed his new life as Roman Torchwick wasn't the greatest string of decisions he'd ever made, but it was his life now and those kingdoms of yore were his distant past.

He had adopted the facade of the dastardly thief some six years ago, when he'd first come to Vale. Really, it was simply a mask he used to amuse himself and torment the utterly incompetent Vale Police Department. Oh how very satisfying it was to serve as a maniacal villain to Red's chipper young superhero. Ahh Red, also known as Ruby Rose, she was the best nemesis he'd had in a long time. The closest had been a dogged detective that had come close twice, but they'd ended up reassigned after continually failing to catch him. Red was strong, faster then even he was, and frankly had a lucky streak to easily rival his own. If he was being honest, he found her moralizing positively adorable, though the few times he'd managed to fluster her were by far some of the most endearing sights he'd seen.

If the situation was to present itself, Roman thought idly he'd love to look into trying to get her to join him, she certainly knew how to use that weed whacker of hers to an exceptional degree and her speed would make her a first class thief. Red was simply too much fun and had too much potential to let go to waste. If Cinder actually pulled off her little coup, he'd have to see if he could somehow get Red's little teammates out of Vale, as a reward for the great amusement she'd given him over such a short span.

Still, fun though his little games with Red were, he did on occasion miss being a hero. Missed believing what he was doing was right. Missed being able to wake up in the morning and not on some level hate what you had become. Most of all he missed that part of him that had hoped, hoped that maybe this time when the fire was linked things would turn out better. That part died when he first stepped foot in Remnant and saw what a travesty he had helped create.

Well except for that _one_ little side job he'd kept up all this time, Something even Cinder remained unaware of. That job still involved some heroic work he enjoyed, but no one not involved directly could be allowed to know about it.

Maybe he should consider looking into going straight, he mused as he stepped through a rarely used alleyway and over the decaying corpse of a homeless man. He'd been beaten to death three days ago, but as it was just some bum in an area no respectable citizen would ever travel through the city was taking it's sweet time getting to it. Getting protections for betraying the White Fang could be dangerous, after all the government could be just as evil as Cinder when it needed to be. The benefits, however could also be incredibly lucrative. If he betrayed Cinder and turned on her at the apex of her plans, and in doing so force her to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it sounded wonderfully poetic to him. Roman would consider it if he could somehow get Neo out of this life with him. She was more than just a bodyguard, She was family. including perhaps Junior, and in her own way Red, Neo could be said to be one of only three people he genuinely cared about in this blood soaked world. There was no way he'd abandon her, she was loyal to him to the end, and he was the same, that was the end of the matter.

Roman remembered how they'd met all those years ago. When an early job had gone well and truly south, Neo had ended up taking a dust bomb they'd been paid to deliver almost point blank to the face after the device had 'malfunctioned'. As a result Neo had been left bedridden for close to four months, though it was a miracle she even survived. He didn't know her back then, she was just his partner for that particular job, a system based ironically on the one used by the very people assigned the task of stopping them. Otherwise, they had never crossed paths before. The job had been a setup that Atlas had created hoping that by organizing a false raid on a dust shipment from Atlas they could disassemble a decent chunk of the illegal dust trade that existed from Atlas to Vale. They had been hammering away at this problem for years by that point, with negligible results.

It failed to create any major disruption in the trade, but it did manage to decapitate the decently sized street gang that he had gotten the job from. From this gang's ashes he, with the help of his right hand Neo, would eventually rise to becoming the de facto power broker across the poorer districts of Vale. It was during this time that he'd met Junior, the closest thing he had to a best friend.

He'd paid for an underground doctor a modest sum to fix the damage and he'd personally cared for her afterwards. Roman made sure that she made a complete recovery. Couldn't let the idea he abandoned his comrades get around, it'd make his future partners less likely to stick their necks out for him on the next job. Reputation meant everything in the underworld, if protecting that reputation meant spending a little extra, extra money or extra time, then so be it.

Sure it was time consuming, but after the job had gone south he'd needed to lay low until the heat had fully blown over, which took even longer as the Schnee did all in their power to uproot that thorn in their profit margins once and for all, and did manage to take several of the, at the time, big names in the trade out of the equation, but new people stepped in before the bodies were even cold. While that was going on outside his apartment, Roman focused on using his plenty of newfound extra time to devote to this little mute girl. Once she'd fully recovered, he'd sent her on her way and didn't expect for them to cross paths ever again. He certainly hadn't expected to see her a week later when she'd shown up at his apartment in a tattered coat, shredded pants and a worn out t-shirt. Neo had managed to locate his apartment from memory. It was the dead of winter with mounds of snow some of which were taller than she was. Had he left her out there, Roman had no doubt she'd have chosen to freeze to death on his doorstep rather than return to her home.

After bringing her in and preparing the guest room for some use, it would become her permanent room later, he sat her down and managed to establish communications with a pen and paper. Turned out she was from a rather abusive home, her father was an alcoholic that had hit her several times in the past, once even breaking her arm when she was four. her mother was an addict that when not high was blamed Neo for all of her problems. Her parents had thrown her stuff out of the house, the whole box and a half's worth of things, and were renting out her room when she'd returned after her four month absence. There had been no search, not even a missing person's report. As she recounted her story she clutched a torn up stuffed animal, a dog, Roman wasn't a master seamstress but he could sew, so he'd patched up the little plush and offered her the spare room for as long as she'd wanted, and she'd been there with him ever since.

As Roman walked along the wet, asphalt road, having finished his walk and feeling positively radiant, he noticed someone standing on the edge of a rooftop nearby, it looked to Roman like they were thinking of jumping. It would be the eighth one this week, and it was only Tuesday night. He supposed there were downsides to living on the edge of 'suicide alley'. Honestly it was his fault in a way, A while back he'd stopped those who tried to commit suicide here near his original home and using the soul arts had helped to heal them, they were often afflicted with crippling injuries and other problems resulting from the lack of adequate medical assistance for those in the poorer areas of Vale. The legend had stuck, even though he rarely stopped anyone anymore people still came here to do their grisly deed.

Roman couldn't really say what made him climb the fire escape and seek out this particular poor soul on the roof, but he did. Perhaps the storm had simply put him into the right mood for a bit of charity. Perhaps it was fate. Regardless Roman made his way up and with the near deafening typhoon encapsulating them it wasn't until he placed his hand on their shoulder that the would-be jumper seemed to notice his presence. They already seemed to be in the middle of jumping, so he seized their hand and managed to keep her from falling into the alley below. When he saw who it was he was holding he found himself almost losing his grip in surprise.

"...Well, hello there Red."

* * *

 **Previously that day**

* * *

"Weiss, please wait, just tell me what's been bothering you."

"If you don't know, then it must not really be that big a deal to you." before Ruby could reply Weiss had stormed out of her room. It had been going on like this for close to a month, and it wasn't just Weiss. Blake, Jaune, even Yang, her own sister, seemed to grow more distant as time went on, and Ruby hadn't the slightest idea why. Things had been so great at first, everyone had been so friendly, Except for Cardin and his team but they were just a few bad apples. Now most people either ignored her or scowled at her as she walked past and she didn't know why.

She didn't know about the rumors that were the cause of her social ills. Certainly Ruby did not know how deeply team CRDL had spread the vile slander among the student body of Beacon. That she was a fraud, a liar, a whore. Most of the rumors had failed to take any sort of root, But let it never be said Cardin Winchester was a man to give up on a idea once he'd started it. Soon enough a few rumors did indeed begin to spread and independent from team CRDL did the lies begin to snowball. Rumors turned to stories to Theory to fact by word of mouth and if Ruby had done half the things that it was whispered she had, she wouldn't have been willing or able to show her face in Vale ever again. So pervasive were they, that some of them had made their way to the normal citizens of Vale. Ironically, The criminal element was one of the only groups to openly dismiss the rumors, after all they'd dealt with the little redhead's vigilantism enough firsthand to know that there was no way that the rumors could be true. If they were true then there'd be a lot more of them walking the streets free men. instead of rotting in Vale's prison.

This social issue was combined with a continual string of nightmares had left her thoroughly deprived of sleep, and unceasingly anxious. The toll of such emotions was beginning to become pronounced, with black circles beginning to form under her eyes, and a nervous habit of looking over her shoulder, even when she was sure she was alone. It must have been close to three weeks since she'd had a good nights sleep. She'd tried everything she could think of, medication, folk remedies, listening to debates by the Vale council, nothing worked. She was at wit's end and she didn't know where to go from here.

The nightmares always consisted of her fighting monsters. Some resembled animals, some looked like they might of once been human, still others were of an indescribably alien persuasion. She saw herself dying over and over and it was always so painful in her dreams, that early on, she would wake up screaming. Weiss had complained about waking everyone else up in the middle of the night and had threatened to make her wear a muzzle to keep her quiet while she slept. The nightmares had recently begun to include someone else. he looked like a knight in shining armor, glowing bright Yellow, like a sun. He wielded a sword and shield and he'd rush forward and provide aid while she struggled desperately to survive the monstrosity that night. Sometimes Ruby swore she heard him calling out to her, but it was always too distorted to make out.

Tired and confused, Ruby took her cloak and decided to go for a walk and try and clear her head. She failed to check the weather report that said it was going to be storming in a few hours and so failed to prepare accordingly. As she stood in the empty dorm room, she couldn't help but feel a sense of isolation creep in, she felt alone even when her team was with her and in the silence of this room it never felt more stark than it did now.

Seeing her head off into Vale as dusk was approaching only gave the rumors added vigor, soon it would reach the point where truth and lie would be irrelevant the sheer momentum of the rumors alone would be enough. After all, even if those rumors were false, there was no way all these rumors could be false, where there's smoke there's fire, so something had to be going on, right?

* * *

 **Present**

* * *

She was so very lost, somehow Ruby managed to end up on the shadier side of town and had ended up losing her way entirely. Even with the map on her scroll, the area had so many twists in it that she couldn't figure out where to go time and time again. Or perhaps it was her poor night's sleep coupled with the heavy rain that covered her scroll's screen that was the problem. Ruby thought about using her scroll to call her team to pick her up, then thought against it she couldn't let anyone see her as needing help, she was the leader of her team, she could handle walking around Vale by herself.

As she stood on the roof of this building trying to get her bearings, jumping slightly at each of the massive booms of the thunder she had failed to hear Roman sneak up on her. Suddenly she felt his hand on her shoulder and she jumped in surprise. Ruby lost her footing on the slick roof's edge and she began to fall. Her hand reached out for something to grab onto, anything would suffice. It ended up being Roman's arm. To say she was surprised would be an understatement, the fact that he wasn't trying to throw her down into the alley below a moment later was similarly shocking.

"...Well, hello there Red."

"Torchwick!"

"When last I checked, any particular reason you've decided my block stuck out as the one you wanted to try and end it all on Red? Perhaps you just loved the view of lines and lines of worn down broken old apartment complexes or maybe the sweet stench of human misery gave it that _je ne sais quoi_?"

"What? What're you talking-" Whatever she was trying to say to him failed to reach it's destination as it was drowned out by the sudden crackle of thunder and the howling winds that seemed to return with renewed vigor. It actually became somewhat difficult to keep a grasp on her hand as the wind built up enough speed to begin pushing the young huntress in training every direction it could muster.

"Well this is hardly the place for conversation, enjoyable though it is to see you in your current state, so how about you and I go back to my place and get something to drink?"

Hefting her up, he produced a set of handcuffs and cuffed her hands, restraining her further with a second set of cuffs around her ankles he wrapped her up in her own red cloak tightly enough to where she better resembled a roll of red carpeting and hefted her onto his shoulder as she began kicking and screaming, but to no avail, the weather simply drowned out her words and the heavy rain made visibility next to impossible. He took her to his current penthouse about a block away. The doorman didn't ask, and Roman didn't provide an answer. Good, he had chosen well on whom to employ here. She tried calling out to the people as they passed, but they ignored her or shied away. If they weren't people intimidated by the infamous crime lord, they were criminals like him. If Roman was doing something to the little brat who'd been making several of their lives an absolute hell, all the more power to him. By the time he'd reached the top floor Ruby wasn't fighting nearly as much as he'd expected and he managed to get into the apartment with minimal issue.

A multitude of things began to run through Ruby's mind as Roman sat her down on his couch in what was admittedly a really nice apartment. Two floors, nice comfy furniture, a awesome TV along with a game system, she kind of wished the dorm rooms in beacon were as nice. It was also all so well kept and clean, back at her dorm only Weiss really kept anything clean, everyone else just left things where they landed. Ruby had never thought of Roman as a neat freak until she sat there surveying his home, now she began to wonder what other things were there that she didn't know about him.

Roman made two mugs of hot chocolate for them while Ruby examined his penthouse. Suicide talks always required full sobriety given the importance of the issue so he resisted the urge to add something special to his drink. When he returned Roman found her staring holes in a particular spot on his wall. After following her eyes for a few minutes and noticing nothing, he decided she must be in her own little world, probably mulling over whatever it was that drove her to attempt suicide tonight.

What was she supposed to do, think Ruby think! You were currently captured by your greatest foe, what do you do in the situation? Escape, that was what she had to do, escape. But wait, escape to where? With the storm raging outside, it was so bad she still couldn't tell where in Vale she was. And what if she ran into other criminals or thieves, Crescent Rose was in her dorm back at Beacon so she didn't have any weapons to protect herself. Well, she could just use her speed to run away then, but what if she ran the wrong way and got even more lost. How would she get these these cuffs off her, start with that okay. She was brought out of her planning to see Roman holding out a cup for her to take and staring with his face a few inches from hers.

"Earth to red, come in Red, you still with me?"

"Ahh, um yeah, where are we?" suddenly aware of how she had been caught unaware Yet, for whatever reason she felt perfectly safe here. It was a strange feeling to say the least, after all she was sitting on a couch with Roman Torchwick Sitting beside her both of them drinking hot cocoa, or at least she was, he probably had something stronger in his cup. Wait what if her drink was poisoned! She waited patiently to feel the poison work it's way through her system, and waited, and waited. Staring in fear at the mug with a cat emblazoned on the side.

"The drink's not spiked Red. If I'd wanted to kill you, I'd have shot you back on the roof, or let you finish what you were try to do back on that roof. Now I believe we have a bit to discuss don't we?"

"W-we do?" What could he want to talk to her about? Why was he being so nice, they were enemies, he should hate her. What did he think she was trying to do back on that roof?

"Let me start by saying that regardless of what you're going through you should know you have people that care deeply about you and worry for you."

That's what you start these talks with right? You tell people that there are people who care about them. From there Roman was clueless, he could slay demons the size of buildings with ease, pull off complex heists in his sleep, but convincing someone to metaphorically step away from the ledge, that was something he didn't do particularly often anymore so he was unsure of where to take the conversation from there.

What? What did he mean by that surely he couldn't be, oh no, nononono. This must be like that book Blake had loaned her about the dastardly ninja thief who'd fallen in love while fighting the other, good ninja. She was too young to get married to him, sure Roman wasn't ugly, in fact he actually had really nice eyes now that she got to see one of them so closely, and he had a well toned body and when he smiled certain way... But but, no hold on. Hold on. She must be reading too much into what he was saying right there's no way-

"Red, you mean a lot to me, if you're having issues, I'm more than willing to listen, okay?" That wasn't great, but that was close enough to the proper thing right? Roman wasn't quite sure if that was the right way to start to get her to open up about her problems but that was there wasn't any major problems with the sentence right? Sure that wasn't really the case with their relationship, but he could really bring that up and expect her to be honest with him. Best to just lie and hope for the best.

Ruby's face now better resembled her , no doubt about it, Roman Torchwick was in love with her, Ruby was certain of it now there couldn't be any other meaning to those words. What should she do, what-

"Red, please tell me-"

Oh god. He was going to ask if she loved him or not, oh no, what should she say, no? What if that made him angry, she was at his mercy right now. Should she say yes? What if he thought she was lying or wanted to do… Things. She didn't know what things because Yang had snatched the book from her before she'd gotten to that part, but there was definitely some things that he might want to do to her. At this point Ruby could easily be said to be several shades redder than her cloak

"-What made you want to try and kill yourself tonight?"

"...What?"

"Red, you were on a roof in suicide alley. You frankly look like you haven't slept in days and appear to in generally be in a pretty bad state. What else could you possibly be doing there?"

"What, I was just lost, my scroll's map was so confusing and with the storm I was trying to get a better perspective." The relief on his face was palpable, and while she was happy that he wasn't about to declare his undying love, a _very_ small part of her did kind of wish he had, she'd never had someone confess to her and a tiny part of her wanted someone to desperately...

"So then why did you try to jump?"

"I slipped when you snuck up on me!" Ruby replied, slightly louder than she had intended.

"I didn't sneak up on you, and keep your voice down, you'll wake-" The sound of a door being opened on the second floor was audible. "-her."

Neo walked out in a set of pink pajamas, holding a little plush toy and rubbing her eyes. she stared down at them for a moment frowning

"Hey Neo, everything's fine just go back to bed." Roman said as he looked at his still half-asleep bodyguard/ little sister.

She scowled at him for a moment before signing to him,

 _Why's she here? I don't like it when you bring people here to home._

 _I Found her on a roof in suicide alley turns out she was just lost. I'll return her in the morning. As deep as we are in the slums she'll never find this place again._

She stood there for a moment scowling, before walking downstairs and proceeding to slump against him on the couch, resting her head on his shoulder. Neo took his hot coco from him while he idly ran his hands through her multi toned hair and Roman only gave a half hearted protest. She began to drink and had to resist the urge to spit it out. He always added so much sugar to his drinks, it was so sweet it was almost painful. This would wake her up faster than the time it would take to turn on the coffeemaker. After a short but not unpleasant silence the power began to flicker.

"I'm going to go get some candles, you two play nice." Roman said as he got up to retrieve them in case the power was to go out. The two sat in silence for a moment until Neo took out her Scroll and began to type.

 _So, what's it like?_

"Huh, what's what like?" Ruby said, confused as to what Neo was talking about.

 _What's it like being able to walk the streets whenever you want to, what's it like to get to go to school, are there dances? Are you single, do you have a boyfriend? Do you have a girlfriend?_

"Beacon's pretty nice, and no I don't have a boyfriend…" Ruby replied slightly flustered by the line of questioning

 _What's it like… To be normal._

"What? I don't really think that I'm normal…"

It was at this point that Roman reentered the room carrying a pillow, some blankets and a couple candles.

"I just got a call, one of Junior's boys says he found something. I'll be out late tonight, get the guest room ready in case he needs to stay over tonight. Red, the storm's supposed to let up around three, so I'll take you back early tomorrow. Neo, make sure you and Red have something to eat, you have Junior's number so call him if something goes wrong. Don't wait up on me." With that he turned and almost made it to the door before Neo had managed to grab him around the waist, holding him there.

"Neo, look I know you don't want me too, but this is a job that has to be done. I've told you a hundred times, you can't come along on these jobs. I'm not risking your life too."

Neo didn't care, she hated these late jobs, these _other_ jobs. She knew he did them to keep her and Junior safe, if he didn't she knew that they were the first people that the demons would prey on, but why couldn't he let her come with him. She was safe when he was with her, and she was strong enough now to protect him. Why couldn't he see that? The tears were few but they were more than visible enough that Roman was able to clearly see them. He bent down and wiped the tears from her eyes before pulling Neo into a brief hug.

"Don't worry I'll be back to make you breakfast in the morning, just like I always am. I promise, now I really need to go before this thing gets away."

With that Roman broke her grasp and departed. Neo went to the coffee machine and turned it on, she started brewing a cup and sat back down next to Ruby, dejected.

"Is he going out to rob someplace without you?" Ruby asked, confused at the oddly emotional display, did she always do that when he went out to rob banks by himself, what made this one so different?

 _I wish, that call meant something's going on that involves things the police can't or won't handle. If he needs the guest room ready then that means those 'things' are involved._

What were 'those things', they didn't sound like people. Were they some kind of Grimm? Why would Roman Torchwick hunt Grimm? "Well whatever those 'things' are, couldn't you guys get some huntsmen and they could-" Neo shook her head no.

 _These things, they're like grimm only smarter, they sense hunters and run away before the hunters arrive and wait for them to leave before returning. And they like attacking criminals, because they don't contact anyone until it's too late. Roman can track them though, so sometimes he gets calls to deal with them._

"Why would he do that? He's the monster that brought hundreds of Grimm into the city!" The moment that those words left her mouth she regretted it. Roman wasn't a monster, he was a thief, a criminal but he didn't go around torturing people for fun, he was trying to survive and while she condemned him for his methods, she felt that perhaps she could maybe understand his thought process. It still bothered her as she had racked her brain several times and had continually failed to understand what roman had hoped to accomplish when he brought all of those Grimm into Vale, it was just so unlike his previous MO. Before Ruby could say anything, however, she was greeted with the feeling of being slammed into the wooden floor and Neo's hands curling around her throat.

Neo was livid, but her face was as placid as ever, showing only a sly sadistic smirk. how dare she judge them. Who gave her the right to condemn them, to call him a monster? This little redhead didn't know anything! She didn't know how he'd saved her life, or how he'd protested bringing Grimm into the city. Worst of All she was _here_ , she was in the space reserved for just her and Roman. That thought, of this girl defiling this sanctuary, and to be ungrateful on top of it. Neo couldn't take it, no rather, she refused to put up with such a transgression.

 _We don't have a choice! If he didn't do it she'll kill us!_ Neo practically smashed the scroll into Ruby's face, while Neo kept her hold and seemed to be positively shaking with rage, apparently Ruby had accidentally struck a very sore nerve, She hoped this wouldn't prove a fatal mistake.

"You have to?" Ruby managed to croak out. The idea of Roman Torchwick being forced to do these things by someone else was possible, yet there was no one Ruby knew of that seemed capable of doing such. The question of how Roman and Neo saw their job suddenly surfaced in her mind. This thought quickly vanished replaced with a sense panic as she struggled desperately to get the other girl off her as the edges of her vision began to blacken. Ruby suddenly felt the pressure around her throat disappear, and after a few deep breathes of sweet wonderful air, her vision returned to normal. Neo got off her and looked somewhat ashamedly at her, though the anger was till clearly visible.

 _I'm sorry I overreacted_

"It's okay… I forgive you. Well we're going to be here a couple hours, do you have any movies?" Ruby squeaked out, hoping to distract Neo as well as trying to hide the terror that Neo had instilled in her. This wasn't so bad Ruby repeated in her mind, like an insane mantra. It was kind of like a sleepover, like one she'd had back at Signal. Maybe a bit more violent but so long as she avoided setting Neo off until Roman came back, she could hopefully get out alright. Dear aura, Ruby hoped Roman came back soon, things here were so much safer with him around. This place suddenly felt much harsher, as if some illusiory dream was shattered, leaving her trapped in reality.

What she'd typed before stuck out again in her mind, they didn't have a choice? That would explain how different Roman was now compared to when he fought her in the past. And it explained why he, a thief was working with the White Fang, ostensively a terrorist group. How then, maybe she could help them get away and then they wouldn't have to do these things.

 _I have a few movies._

Neo got up and retrieved a small stack of DVDs with such titles as, _Friday the 15th_ , _Night of the living Grimm_ and _Atlas Chainsaw Massacre_. Ruby would come to sorely regret not voicing a protest to Neo as she slid the first DVD into the console and pressed play.

The rain was a utter deluge when he'd gotten to his car. The rain didn't let up a fraction while Roman drove to the warehouse by the docks. The roads could better be classified as rivers and even the simple short route here was an arduous journey. Good, that meant less of a chance of anyone stumbling across them and interfering. Even in the rain they were conspicuous, a pair of knights lounging on some boxes while being pelted by the rain. Clad in tattered black cloaks, covering plate mail singed black. Roman knew the armor still managed to radiate it's golden embroidery if the lighting was right and he could attest firsthand to it's durability. He was dressed as he normally was, bowler hat, white coat, the only major difference was the mask. It was white porcelain with two holes for eyes, otherwise there was no mark on it. He'd taken it from a pack of assassins that had hollowed back in Lordran, it was a good luck charm for him, and if this really was what Junior's source had said it was, he'd be certain to thank his lucky charm once more.

The blade had appeared and disappeared on his radar repeatedly for close to a year now, and tonight he would finally return the blade to it's rightful place. He got out of his car and walked to the front door of the warehouse that the illegal auction was supposed to be taking place at. Adam Taurus stood out in the rain waiting for him. While Roman did appreciate their promptness, it was still pouring and he felt perhaps next time they ought to bring an umbrella. wouldn't that be it, he needed their help fighting a demon and they all ended up with colds from standing out in the rain.

"You're sure the deal is going down in there?" the imposing bull faunus asked after Roman had gotten out and made his way to them.

"I'm certain Adam, have I been wrong yet? And for God's sake man is it so hard to pack an umbrella when you know it's raining?" Roman replied. Honestly, Adam had been working with him on this little side project for close to two years, Roman wished for a little more faith from the man.

"Had an umbrella," one of the knights said as they fell in behind the two, "Wind went and blew off to who knows where."

"Now, while I enjoy standing out in the rain as much as the next thief, should you get the door or will I?"

"I'll do it." Turning to the door, Adam gave it a swift kick. the door leading into the warehouse flew inwards with immense speed, ripped off it's hinges by the immense physical power that had been infused into it. It crushed a poor mafia gunman who'd been standing guard in front of the door. Inside were stacks upon stacks of storage containers. Slightly off to the side several well dressed men and women were sitting on benches while an auctioneer stood on a podium apparently getting ready to sell the next item. There were only three guards, mostly for show as no one had expected any trouble. Roman needed to handle this delicately if he didn't want this to devolve into senseless carnage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, everyone here is going to die!" There we go, nice and subtle. The underground auctioneer and his patrons stood silently for a moment unsure how to react before seeing the black knights at which point it became utter pandemonium. The Black Knights were a bit of an urban legend now amongst the criminal sector of Vale. They were the boogeymen appearing suddenly two years ago. They appeared at random, following an agenda that no one barring the knights themselves seemed to know. What was understood was this. If a black knight crossed your path, you were going to die. In fact, you were going to die soon. If not by their hands then it seemed as if by the will of fate itself. It was a pain making so many death out as accidents, but if there was anything more important to organized crime then reputation, it was legend and superstition. In fact less than thirty people had been killed so far in the past two years, but rumors were powerful tools and by the end of the first year many were convinced that the knight's body count numbered in the hundreds. Seeing three such angels of death threw a proverbial switch within the criminal mind and shifted their survival instincts into overdrive.

They began running every which way in hopes of escape, like roaches fleeing from the light they scattered amongst the containers, or made haste toward any visible exit available. Hoping desperately to arrive at some form of safety. Adam utilized his greater, aura enhanced, speed swiftly outpaced them and proceeded to sever their legs, leaving them to die from shock and blood loss in a dingy little warehouse by the docks. After a minute Adam returned to the front of the warehouse. Roman shot the few stragglers and silence once again fell across the warehouse a few minutes after the violence had erupted.

"Anyone left?" Roman asked, the annoyed glare that Adam had been sporting since they'd arrived was a sufficient response.

"Of course not."

"Boss, we normally just let them run and get away, what made today so different?" A cat faunus asked him, Mary if Roman remembered correctly.

"Ah, I'm glad you asked my favorite little catgirl, you see this was actually a request of our fine mutual friend and associate Mr. Taurus." Roman said with a slight flourish gesturing to Adam. "He requested it after discovering what was to be the main merchandise of this particular auction." Roman said while looking at the now slightly bloodstained inventory guide clutched in the hands of the now very dead auctioneer. Strutting over to a particular container he looked at the container and saw it match the one listed on the paper. "Shall we have a look at this merchandise?" With a loud bang Roman blasted the lock off with his cane, and calmly pushed the doors outward, allowing the others a good view as to the container's contents. While Adam was aware of the contents, the two with them were stunned and horrified in equal measure.

Inside were seven faunus women, chained to the walls of the container. From here the smell of disease and bodily waste was overpowering, Roman could only guess how long they'd been chained like that, unable to move. Other vile odors wafted towards them from the end of the container where the women were and forced Mary and the poor dog faunus, Isaac, to take a couple steps away or risk losing control of their stomachs. Working slowly so as to be as gentle as possible, they managed to extract all of the women from the container. Finding a small office with a sink and some buckets, they began to clean off the filth covered women and did their best to treat their injuries. It was a haunting sight, they were malnourished to an extreme degree, with their skeletons plainly visible under the skin so painfully stretched over it. three were unable to stand and two proved incapable of walking without assistance. In total only two could walk unassisted and between them only one of them still seemed able to speak. She told them about a hunter who had offered supposedly to get them into Vale without issue in exchange for money and other 'services'.

They had all heard of this scam before. Ex-hunters while not common, they were common enough to have seen multiple iterations of this scam with real hunters involved, making breaking such scams up rather hazardous This scam had tricked plenty of innocent people, who just happened to have issues that barred them from enjoying the protection of the city's massive defensive fortifications. Things had only grown worse with more and more regulations that allowed less and less people in, and practically excluded most faunus from getting in. This created a market smugglers and by extension a new avenue for people to be captured and sold on the slave markets.

Banned in all the kingdoms, the slave trade subsisted due to one major group, the Schnee Dust Corporation. Known only perhaps to two or three top executives, the Schnee Corporation had found the slave trade simply too appealing regarding its profitability to pass up. About one third of those kidnapped by the trade ended up mining Dust for the Schnee at designated 'black sights'. There was such demand due to the high mortality rate, the slaves were sent only to the most grueling unsafe and risky of mines, those mines that couldn't be found on a map as even acknowledging their existence could threaten the whole operation if someone was to take but a cursory glance in that direction. Where instead of being given a coffin as most employees received, they were given an urn to hold their ashes, and often the ashes of whomever else they could fit inside of the container.

Roman left the rest of the knights to deal with the women and began breaking open the other containers that held the other faunus, and a couple humans in equally dismal shape, that were still locked in other storage containers. Not everyone survived and he found one particular container where a boy perhaps in his his-teens was still clutching the hand of his very dead mother, sobbing softly. The boy was filthy, his shirt rotted and far to small for him. The Mother's corpse was infested with insects, no doubt having a deleterious effect on the boy's health. Roman could see the swarm of flies circling her head buzzing slightly and the fat yellow maggots contrasting with the corpses long jet black hair. He needed Adam's help to pry the boy away from his mother, once they did so, he simply stopped moving at all, reminiscent of a puppet with it's strings cut.

He moved the sickly and most grievously wounded closely around him while Adam and the others got the rest into range of Bountiful Sunlight, the miracle he was about to channel. No one resisted, they were simply too broken from the months of misery at the moment to do much of anything. He noticed Adam, Isaac and Mary were also in range, that was fine after what they'd seen Roman didn't begrudge them wishing for a degree of solace.

Now came time for the miracle itself. He started softly as the soul art began, its glow was muted at first as he softly sang it's effect was barely visible. As his voice increased in volume so too did the brightness as the magic began to flow more readily. Wounds and pain from their mistreatment began to heal and fade, both wounds of the flesh and wounds of the mind. When he'd finished the final crescendo Roman better resembled the sun, or perhaps more aptly an inferno, with as much light as he was radiating.

Bountiful Sunlight was a powerful healing spell, It was a song that could mend souls as well as bodies. As he looked among the faces however he saw the seeds of hatred had been planted deeply, and despite his powers he saw that such emotions would not fade anytime soon. It reminded him of the king all those years ago, his speech as to the pain all suffered, and would continue to suffer. Honestly he couldn't blame them, pain was the best fertilizer for hate. Undoubtedly word would have spread about who it was that was financing this Auction, and while they might see himself and the other human prisoners and not feel the hate stir inside he doubted they would ever extend the courtesy to the rest of humanity, especially those from Atlas, a country synonymous with their abusers.

It broke his heart when he caught sight of a small child, a little girl, perhaps no older than eleven. She was sitting there, her eyes beaming with joy and hope that the miracle had instilled in them all, and to see beneath it all the pain and suffering she had endured was heart wrenching. No one should suffer as she had, but especially not an innocent child like her. He wanted to go over and hug her. To tell her it would be alright, to pick her up and promise her that no one was going to hurt her ever again.

He resisted the urge. There was still a job to do, and Roman hated making promises he knew he wouldn't be able to keep. Sometimes the world was cruel, this was a day where the world was not being cruel, the world was being a hateful sadist that enjoyed nothing more than twisting the knife in deeper. Mary had walked up to him while he surveyed the crowd. Her nervousness was rather obvious, to him at least. her tell lied in her body language, in how she carried herself. When she was slightly leaning forward and added emphasis was subconsciously placed on her right foot, that meant she was nervous and was ready to run if something went wrong.

"Isaac and I are going to head back, Adam says he's got to talk to you about something, don't know what. Don't worry about these people we'll take them and get them to one of our safe houses, from there…" she trailed off, unsure on what exactly the White Fang _would_ do with this bunch of former slaves.

"I would suggest leaving the rest up to those who get paid to handle such matters, wouldn't want them to not be earning their keep, now would we? Now Mary, while I do appreciate being kept up to date, was there by chance something you wished to discuss with me?" she nodded hesitantly then looked around to see if anyone nearby was eavesdropping.

"It's about the plan. You told us that Demons come when people suffer, a lot like Grimm do, only the couple of time we fought Demons with ya, they were practically bulletproof. Won't there be a lot more demons running around if the plan get's done the way we think it will?" The anxiety in her voice was well founded, the idea of masses of Demons, possibly aided by swarms of Grimm, roaming free inside Vale's walls was a terrifying thought. Not to mention on a personal note, that Cinder had just recently immolated some poor soul alive in front of the rest of the White Fang for questioning the operation's plan this late into the operation. Even if they were among friends, if by some means this conversation was passed along they could both be in serious danger.

"I've been considering that. I wouldn't worry, if I'm right that is exactly what Adam and I will be discussing tonight i'm sure we'll come up with something. Just remember, we've managed to hold them off for this long with no one yet finding out, we can handle one bad night."

"I know it's just, I've got a real bad feeling boss is all I'm saying, just thought you should know."

"I appreciate it my dear. Now please, I need to retrieve what it is we came here for in the first place. I imagine there'll be a little excitement to round off the night as well."

"Is it one of them boss?"

"Yes, Just a Vanguard, but still a demon nonetheless, and I thought I told you, call me Roman or at the very least sir. When we're doing these jobs, we are both setting our lives on the line. Calling me boss just feels strange while attending to such matters."

"Yes bo-, I mean yes sir."

"See, that's not so hard now is it?"

He smashed open the glass display case and retrieved the great-sword within. Northern Regalia, it was forged by mixing two demonic blades together into a single mass of unrepentant hunger. He would've recognized the tainted blade anywhere and it recognized him as well, practically giddy with glee at feeling it's old master once again holding it. As he inspected the blade he sensed the Demon that had been waiting for an opportunity all this time finally made it's move. The Horned beast materialized directly outside the front door, wreathing the Warehouse entrance in a fog gate. Roman and Adam stepped outside to confront it while the two knights moved the civilians back and ensured no inquisitive soul would accidentally walk through and get caught in the crossfire.

In the rain the creature's massive frame stood unmoving, giving it the appearance almost of a statue. It's silhouette was illuminated by the raindrops reflecting the broken moon's pale light. Three glowing yellow eyes beamed a look of unrepentant hatred at them, it's long ivory teeth formed a twisted toothy grin as the Vanguard gazed upon them silently. It's fat gut was deceiving and as it hefted it's massive iron axe up with it's spike encrusted arms with tremendous speed, it's strength and rippling muscles became readily apparent. Roman knew it might indeed be a long night still, and hefted Regalia up onto his shoulder and the blade began to glow while Adam grasped the hilt of his blade. Oh how hungry Regalia was it had been so long deprived. The Vanguard would serve as a wonderful feast for the soul-starved great-sword. The demon let loose an ungodly howl and charged them with blistering speed.

* * *

 **And done. I think I'll try and update this on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, the chapters will hopefully be between this length and around half of it. Until next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note This chapter should a somewhat lighter and was supposed to be a bit shorter, enjoy**

* * *

Roman and Adam were forced to make their way on foot back to his apartment, the rain thankfully stopped pouring about halfway there. Roman's car, well actually it wasn't really his he'd stolen it from some poor rich bastard back in Vacuo, had been smashed flat in the ensuing melee with the Vanguard. they were greeted to the sight of Neo fast asleep on the couch and a shivering mass of blankets sitting nearby while some poor teenager on the screen was made the next victim by the film's slasher villain, a half human-half grimm hybrid.

"Oh I forgot, Red's here." Roman mumbled offhandedly as he walked over and turned the TV off. Adam raised an eyebrow, but said nothing for the moment. Roman carefully picked up Neo and took her back to her bed upstairs and tucked her in. Adam meanwhile, went and started the coffee maker. The discussion was kept at a low volume, to avoid the living room's sole occupant from hearing them.

"How bad are things going to be during the attack?" Adam asked bluntly after Roman returned downstairs and they'd both sat down at the kitchen table

"...Bad" Roman said after a moment.

"How, bad?" Adam asked, somewhat agitated by the unintuitive response, he much preferred his reports to be detailed and precise.

"Much much worse than anyone's expecting." Roman said as he sipped his coffee.

"How many demons?"

"You sure you want to know?"

"Yes, of course." Why was Roman being so evasive? these were the same questions he'd asked in the past and the answers had never been so vague.

"With Major demons there are currently thirteen, minor demons I've lost count, easily in the dozens possibly the hundreds." Adam barely kept himself from spewing his coffee everywhere.

"You're certain of those numbers?" The disbelief could be heard clearly in Adam's voice. After all from what Roman had told him previously, there was typically only one or two major or 'archdemons' within an area the size of Vale, this many seemed like deliberate overkill.

"The minor demons no, the Major demons yes, Eight in Vale, three at Beacon, one on one of Ironwood's smaller ships." After a moment Roman added, "The way my skin's been crawling I'm guessing that there's quite a few biding their time outside the city's walls as well

"Any reason there's so many?"

"We've been the largest thorn in it's side as of late, though that's hardly saying much. This is simply implied retribution." At which point there was a long pause as a somber silence fell between them. Adam had no reason to doubt his skills, but even with Roman's aid he would be hard pressed to deal with the numbers Roman had just given him.

"What do we do then?"

"We'll deal with them as they come. There's no real way that I can think of for all of the archdemons to come at the same time, which would be our major concern. The taxing nature of summoning forth so many demons, the only place where there would be enough souls to even make such an attempt worth the risk would be-"

"At the Vytal tournament." Adam finished for him.

"Precisely, and with it a month away I doubt that the plan is for these creatures to remain Idle for so very long."

"So what's your plan then?"

"Well, currently I'm supposed to get captured in a short while. I'll end up on Ironwood's ship, and use the weapons on Vale's defenses after Neo breaks me out. You'll be spearheading an attack on beacon, if what little we've found out about the plan so far holds true. Honestly Perry was a godsend in that regard."

"I'm just glad he managed to get the information and avoid getting caught, there aren't many of us left from back when the White Fang wasn't..."

"A pack of psychotic murderers?"

"So _militant_ in its methods."

"Weren't you a proponent of that militarization though?"

"I believe violence for the pursuit of that which is right is justified, slaughter for the sake of slaughter is not."

"Eh, sure Adam, whatever floats your boat. I'm not exactly in a position to make any judgments in regards to morality or what is right or wrong." to which Adam smirked. "Care to share with the rest of us what's so amusing?"

"I was simply thinking, for a criminal and a freedom fighter-

"Terrorist. criminal and _terrorist_ Adam."

"-You and I have spent a great deal in the past discussing morality. For an individual supposedly devoid of morals, you seem intensely fascinated about them." To which Roman huffed and forcibly returned the conversation to it's initial purpose.

"Regardless we're getting off track. To the original plan I propose an addendum. You and Mary shall accompany Neo, Mary was part of Atlas's military once upon a time wasn't she?" To which Adam nodded."We'll say there was unexpected resistance on the airship and we needed assistance in facilitating my escape and seizure of the vessel." He paused to finish his coffee. "From there, The White Fang will be hesitant to attack Beacon without their leader back to guide them and lead the charge, so to speak."

"That delays the attack on Beacon, but how does that help with the Demons?"

"Simple, we take our sweet time, shoot the larger demons with the weapons on board the ship and give the little brats at Beacon time to organize. We let Cinder more or less go in alone and we pull back with the majority of the White Fang after the tide turns against her and she calls for a retreat. From there the paltry demons remaining will be overwhelmed by the little brats and our demon issue is solved."

"Let's assume everything you proposed works, which it rarely does. What's stopping those very same students from then pursuing us? I'm certain they'll be out for blood for the damage we are going to cause." Adam paused for a moment before speaking under his breath, "Not to mention the civilian casualties."

"Ah, but you forget, There is one final set of players on the board who will be critical in regards to distracting our dear little hunters. The Grimm." "With as much destruction as we are assuming, the Grimm will come in droves. The little hunters will be none the wiser as to the Demon's true origins, they'll just confuse them for strange looking Grimm. We leave with a couple pretty new pieces of Atlas tech, we lose a smaller portion of people as we're retreating early, and best of all you may finally deal with the 'damned witch' as you call her, and if you're lucky her little sycophants too."

"You make that sound easy. If history has proven anything, it's that Cinder will find away to slither away unscathed, and that your plans always end up going astray."

"How is Red's ability to somehow continually throw a monkey wrench into my perfectly designed plans in any way my fault?" Roman said throwing his arms wide in mock exasperation. "If she lives we'll cross that bridge if we come to it and I'm sure you'll find another way to be rid of her."

"Are we really going to do this?" Adam spoke after a moment his voice low.

"Do you like living with her high heel eternally pressed against your throat? I'm not seeing a better opportunity than this for you."

"Of course not, it's just… Everything up to this point makes her seem unstoppable."

"Heh, I know, believe me. Cinder does seems to fancy herself if not a god, certainly godlike. if one was to judge by her success thus far at least, I can certainly understand where she gets such a perception. I have, however, seen gods fall Adam, and rest assured Cinder shall be no exception."

"I hope you're right, Roman, for both our sakes." With that Adam made his way to the guest room, he'd only used it on a few select occasions, but Roman found himself thinking more and more of the guest room as Adam's room. It was a harrowing thought to say the least. It had taken years for him to accept Neo's room as her own, and not just the guest room he was loaning to her. Now Adam had his own room in at most the third the time? If Red started to… No, just no, this was a one night thing. Speaking of which he glanced over in her direction before switching the light off in the kitchen, enveloping everything in pitch darkness and leaving just him and his thoughts.

In the inky darkness he contemplated whether or not Cinder's death was something he really wished for. She was his crutch to justify the things he did that would otherwise keep him up at night. Kill an innocent, well Cinder's plan will kill them anyways. Ruin some poor innocent person's life, well Cinder wanted a lesson to be given to others who might oppose her. Was he really without choice as he so often told himself, or was Cinder merely an excuse to indulge in his own vile nature. The answer should have been obvious, but it all felt cloudy and unclear. He sat in the dark, ruminating on the matter, before like a bolt of lightning, it struck him. Talking to himself would solve nothing, but it just so happened he had a paragon of virtue and righteousness that he could discuss this with.

He calmly walked through the shadowed room over to Red's quivering form and picked her up. It was surprising how fragile she seemed in his arms, so very easy to even accidentally break down and destroy. He opened the door to the Penthouse's terrace and stepped outside, didn't want to wake anyone with this little talk. Besides the storm had finally subsided and the view was simply amazing from up here. Roman placed her in a chair and sat opposite to her. For a moment he simply basked in the quiet hum of the city around him and relaxed. To his shock he felt the black eye orb had begun to thump painfully within his chest. A mere moment later he found himself whisked away in a bright white fog.

This dream tonight was so much worse. Tonight Ruby didn't see herself fighting some crazed lunatic or beast. Rather, she was walking around her home back in Patch. She was younger now, perhaps no older then twelve, everything was almost exactly as she remembered it. Except pinned on every wall and on the ceilings by masses of long barbed spines, were the corpses of her friends and family, seemingly having been flayed open by some kind of long curved blade. From those wounds a thick black sludge was flowing out and pooling on the floor. After trying desperately to try and remove the spikes to no avail, Ruby found herself at a loss. Her only goal now was to find a way to save them, as she made her way into what was some kind of kitchen/living room Ruby saw _them._

Twisted hollow imitations of her loved ones, milling about until they'd spotted her. The eyes were a solid black mass to match their twisted, jagged, obsidian teeth. Their skin was as white as newly fallen snow, and almost resemble porcelain in a way. Beyond that, their appearance perfectly matched the shape and dimensions of her friends. The monsters let loose an earsplitting shriek like the death screams of pigs at a slaughterhouse. As one they charged her, running on all fours like a pack of wild beasts. She did the only thing she could do, she ran. She'd managed to get back to her room and lock her door behind her. Ruby had than hidden herself in her closet, but she still heard them clawing and throwing themselves at the door to her room, slowly cracking the door and causing pieces of the frame to snap.

Ruby felt her mind and body regressing, growing younger and younger as the noises increased in tempo and ferocity. She resembled herself at the age of five, when the door exploded off it's hinges. Silence now hung in the air as the lone figure walked into the room. Behind him fire coated the entryway preventing any form of escape, she was trapped. Ruby wrapped herself up in a coat to hide herself, crying softly and shaking horribly in the fetal position. The monsters had gotten through, she was sure. There was no one to help. she was going to die alone, no no please she didn't want to die not like this. Soon they'd find her, oh god oh god. With a sudden swift tug, the closet door was flung open. She screamed and turned away, not wanting to see her killer's face.

"Red, I'd love to help you but you're going to need to meet me at least halfway here."

What? Hesitantly Ruby peeked out from her jacket. It was Roman, but he was glowing yellow like the knight of her previous dreams. Before Ruby could say anything, a warped hateful wail could be heard coming down the hallway behind him. He turned around and was confronted by a hateful warped visage of what was might once have been a woman walking towards him. The she-beast attempted to approach them, it's empty eye sockets filled with malicious intent. It halted as the flames swirling around the entryway burst to life, bathing the hallway leading to them in a brilliant radiance and forming a flaming barrier between them. After a few moments the creature retreated back, further into the darkness and out of sight growling all the while.

With the creatures sufficiently repelled for the moment Roman turned his attention back to Red.

"Red, when last I checked you weren't the tallest lady I knew, but I remember you reached higher then my knee."

"I-I don't know everything was just, and then I saw everyone and then the monsters and…" At that moment She broke down into hysterical sobs. Sighing Roman picked her up and sat her on the bed, he found a chair and sat in it next to her. She had a death grip on his left arm throughout the whole time, which made grabbing the chair somewhat more of a chore than he'd expected.

"Now Red, look at me. I know whatever you saw probably scared you worse than anything before. The Abyss is a warped place, trust me I've been there enough times to know. But we're not going to get anywhere if you can't pull yourself together. You've foiled me enough times for me to know you're stronger than this."

Was he… Giving her a pep talk? Whether it was his encouragement or just simply the fact that now she was no longer alone, she felt herself return to normal, albeit slowly.

"Better?"

"Uh, yeah I think so."

"Excellent and Red…"

"Yeah?"

"While I do so dearly love holding hands, as well as all the other things young couples such as us enjoy, could you stop attempting to crush all the bones in my hand please?"

"Huh, ahh!" A bright red blush appeared on her face after she realized the thing she'd been cradling was in fact Roman's left arm. His comments did little to alleviate her embarrassment.

"What's the matter Red, don't tell me holding hands is embarrassing for you is it?" Ruby didn't respond, she just hid her head as her blush grew brighter.

"You're sinfully innocent, you know that Red?" Roman chuckled. And he allowed himself a cigar as a calm silence settled over both of them for a while. Eventually Ruby spoke up.

"Please don't smoke in my room." Which cause roman to go into a coughing fit as he attempted to laugh and smoke at the same time.

"Okay, Red, your house your rules."

"Oh, and Roman?" Ruby said looking up at the taller man

"Yes, Red?" Roman said meeting her gaze.

"Thanks, for saving me."

"Anytime, Red, Anytime. Don't thank me yet though, we still need to get you out of here. You have that oversized gardening tool with you?" After searching for a moment Ruby managed to locate Crescent Rose. As Ruby got ready to go, She noticed Roman looking at her oddly.

"Huh, so that's what you look like without your little red hood on. You look different without it. I like you better with it on, I think."

She turned to look at herself in a mirror, then promptly turned beat red once more and flew into her closet.

"Why didn't you tell me I was in my nightclothes!"

"Kinda figured you knew what you were wearing Red."

"Just, just stay out there while I change clothes." Roman dutifully stood outside, idly naming the demons he'd Slain in alphabetical order. He'd gotten to the Moonlight Butterfly when Red stepped back out fully clothed in her huntress gear. Her blush was severely diminished but wasn't fully gone yet.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone you saw me like that."

"Sure Red, I promise." Roman rolled his eyes, honestly of all the things, Red truly was too innocent.

He turned towards the door and began advancing with Ruby following along beside him. They walked along several winding corridors, seeing nothing but further extensions of endless hallway. No corpses, no monsters just silence except for the echos of their steps.

"Red, any idea where we are?"

"I thought we were at my home in Patch, but I don't recognize these hallways anymore."

"What floor is your room on by chance?"

"Second, Wh-" Boom!

The floor ahead was now a sporting a massive smoking hole, courtesy of Melodic Cudgel.

"There we are, now if you'll hold on for one moment." At which point Roman aimed the tip of his his cane into the hole, After completing the incantation the miracle burst to life. A massive burst of sunlight burst out from the end of the cane and irradiated the room below, in holy light. The light reduced several hollows waiting in ambush below to ashes. A few blasts afterwards proved sufficient to illuminate what turned out to be a library of sorts. Seeing no threats directly visible the two dropped down into the rather spacious library. Towards the center of the room was something Ruby had never seen before, but Roman was intimately familiar with.

Though how there was a Bonfire in Red's house was a mystery for another time. He walked over to the curtains around the windows and tore them off allowing light to flow through and permitted the two to see the room much more clearly.

"While we'll definitely have to explore this place further, I believe I've just found our way out Red."

"Huh Where?" Ruby said, looking around frantically.

"Come over here, I'll show you."

Before Red had made it halfway that awful wail began again. The mutilated woman fell between the two with a sickening wet crunch before slowly making her way to her feet. Slumping to one side. She turned her attention towards Ruby. Before Roman could intervene he felt a sharp pain in his back as he was stabbed in the spine by an unseen assailant. With a swift toss Roman was flung across the room, slamming into a bookshelf and remaining on the ground unmoving. a figure previously unseen stepped into view., wrapped in leather and adorned by a silver mask, the visage of Ringfinger Leonhard was now visible. The Murderer of Rosaria, Goddess of rebirth stood there a look of dark satisfaction evident in his manic blue eyes. Wisps of darkness occasionally emanated from his figure giving him an aura of shadow, even as he stood directly in the light.

"My, my, what have we here? A little girl and her pet monster all alone. Oh I remember you, you vile wretch. How you took for yourself the very Soul of Rosaria, you mongrel. Yuria, you and your pets may deal with the girl, he is mine." the last few words came out a feral snarl, as he began quaking in rage and bloodlust at the man who had defiled the very soul of his Goddess was now finally within his grasp.

"Oh my and dare I ask who art thou to command me, little assassin?" A voice came from the ceiling as a robed figure wearing an elaborate metallic mask stood on the precipice of the hole, looking down at the people below.

"I will not allow you to spoil my vengeance for the sake of your inane pride! Now deal with the girl this instant lest I decide to-" He was cut off as a spear of sunlight lacerated him across the chest and sent him careening back. "Ha, it seems there might yet be some fight, in you good, I want to see you suffer for what you've done." though now there was a new emotion present behind his expressionless silver mask. It was fear, fear that even though he'd gotten the drop on Roman it might not be enough.

"I suppose that thine little brat doth ought to be cared for." With that Yuria snapped her fingers and several shadowy figures leapt down through the hole and confronted Ruby. They were tall, emaciated creatures. Their skin was ashen, wrinkled and smelled of rot. They were clothed in degraded iron armors, as decayed as the creatures that bore it. They wielded various swords and maces, held limply in their arms as they focused themselves on the young huntress.

They approached slowly, but served their intended purpose of isolating Roman from Ruby and leaving him without support as Yuria leapt down and rushed to engage Roman along with Leonhard, much to his consternation. Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose And dashed at the growing mob, Trying to break through their sheer numbers and finding for each monster she cut down a new one took it's place. Roman did his utmost to deal with his two assailants but found him being driven further and further back. Ruby had little issue dispatching the individuals within the shambling mass confronting her, but with sheer numbers, as they continued to pour in from the ceiling they were begin to reduce her area to maneuver in.

Meanwhile Roman found himself slowly being overcome as while he was able to match the deicidal spectre blow for blow, Yuria's dark sorceries were carving him to pieces, if he couldn't find a way to silence her casting he would be torn apart at range with no recourse. Spying Yuria standing just a bit too close to a window, he sensed his opportunity and seized it.

His hands ignited into flame with his right hand he imbued sacred fire into his cane and struck leonhard's crescent blade, causing leonhard to stumble back, clutching his arm in searing pain as the fire erupted forth from his cane engulfing the madman's blade and hand along with it. With his left hand he launched an orb of Chaos Fire that slammed into Yuria's gut, interrupting her casting mid-word. Running forward he managed to get close enough to Yuria before she had fully recovered, and with a quick cast he unleashed a quick burst of Force that sent Yuria hurtling back, and smashing her through the window, removing her from the fight.

Like the flicking of a switch the mob fighting Ruby seemed to fall apart at the seams and Ruby was able to make swift progress through the horde of monsters. Slashing and cutting her way through them, there was little now little threat from what up until a moment previously had been a somewhat dire threat.

Roman whirled around and felt dull pain exploding through his shoulder as a kukri blade buried itself in his arm that he was using to wield his cane. Try as he might Roman was swiftly disarmed, his cane was flung several dozen feet away, well out of reach in his current state. Roman soon found himself pinned to the ground trying desperately to keep himself from getting decapitated by Leonhard's blade. Even as he struggled Roman felt his strength fading, that kukri must have been dipped in some kind of poison or sedative. Roman wouldn't stay dead, of course. Phantoms struck down simply returned to their world, no worse for wear.

For whatever reason, however, the state he'd found Red in flashed into his mind, terrified and cowering in a closet while monsters were clawing hungrily at her door. She was innocent of this hell that surrounded her, yet just like all the people he'd tried to save before her, the Abyss had seen fit to try and drag her down into it's depths regardless. He wanted to protect her, and it enraged him that he wasn't strong enough anymore to do so. But then, had he ever truly been strong enough? He reached for a firebomb, planning to at least take his enemy with him. Before he could light the bomb, however, Leonhard was viciously thrown off of him by the timely intervention of one Ruby Rose, who'd managed to break through as the horde had ceased to maintain its numbers or cohesion after Yuria's departure. She hooked Crescent Rose around his waist and flung Leonhard off Roman and sent the former assassin careening into a bookshelf.

He was slow to rise, and when he did Leonhard swayed back and forth unsteadily. He glared hatefully at Ruby and fell to one knee. He held up a black crystal in his hand and it began to glow.

"This is far from over, you insolent dogs." And helped along by a parting shot from Crescent Rose, he dispersed into a cloud of black smog that dissipated shortly thereafter.

As quickly as it had begun silence once again reigned over the library. No more creatures fell from the ceiling, and none of those on the floor showed any signs of life. Rather they slumped like slightly diced marionettes with their strings cut.

"Hey Red, thanks for saving me."

"Anytime Roman, Anytime."

"You mind grabbing that sword over there for me?"

"O-okay." With the action abruptly over the loss of adrenaline made Ruby uncharacteristically out of breath and she stumbled slightly before grabbing the hilt of the coiled blade.

With the slight touch the fire ignited and he felt his connection to this plane begin to ebb immediately. Ruby seemed confused until she too began to fade away. A few minutes later he felt himself return back to the terrace, where he'd started from. After a moment he saw Red beginning to wake up.

"Well that was exciting. Let's not do that again shall we Red?"

"Wait, what was that we just did?" Ruby said, confused at the new settings she found herself in.

"That was a fight on a plane of existence separate, but connected to our own. Best to think of it merely as a dream, except if such things persist, we may have a problem." The look she was giving him made him sigh. "Has then already been a constant problem Red?"

"It's been going on for a few weeks now, usually It's just monsters and I have to fight them. It's not usually like that."

"Alright then, roll up your sleeve and let me see your arm."

"Wha?" Ruby looked at him blushing and wringing her hands.

"Honestly Red, I'm not even asking for you to take your top off, just pull up your sleeve for a moment. Would you please calm down?" Her blush deepened severely. She was about to call him a pervert as loudly as she could, only to have him cover her mouth with his hand.

"Red, Neo is sleeping right now, do you want to wake her a second time?" At the mention of Neo's name the color almost completely drained from Ruby's face. That look of fear made Roman uncomfortable, had Neo done something to Red? If so, they were going to have a talk later.

"Look, I'll tell you what, just close your eyes, and keep them closed until I say so." After a moment's hesitation Ruby closed her eyes. She felt something touching her neck, making it's way up to her left cheek. It felt warm, and oddly soothing, and she left with a sense of loss when the feeling disappeared.

"Okay Red, I'm finished."

"What did you do?"

"Just put a little mark on you, If you ever end up having a dream like what we just had. Just touch your cheek there and I'll be there to help you out."

"What? What if someone at school sees it, or what if I brush against it by accident and you appear in the middle of class? Oh no, then I'll never get to be a huntress, and I'll be grounded for life once dad finds out! He'll kick me out of the house and I'll become a panhandler on the street, then I'll-"

"Red, stop, take a deep breath for me. One, take a look in this mirror." He held up a little pocket mirror to her face, to which she didn't see any mark. It was at this point he touched her cheek and a bright white set of scribbles appeared. "This will only show up, when you or I come into contact with it and wish for assistance. Try it and see for yourself." She did so and by all appearances it worked exactly as advertised.

"Two. No one's going to find out, after tonight we're going to not cross paths like this again, things will go back to the way they were before. It'll be like tonight never happened." Something about that statement felt wrong after Roman said it, though he pushed the thought out of his mind for the moment. "Three, no, if you were out on the streets I or an associate of mine would come and hire you for your demonstrated capabilities within the hour."

"What if, I wanted to stay in touch?" Tonight had been terrifying. Yet, sitting here after he'd helped save her from a rather awful nightmare that was apparently more than just a nightmare made her feel at ease in a way she hadn't felt at Beacon for a while now. As much as her mind agreed with his words, that it was best to pretend that this night never happened, some other part of her wanted more then anything for this nightly rendezvous to become a regular fixture in her routine.

"...I should like to ask why it is you'd want to keep in touch with Vale's most wanted criminal, and specifically why you'd want to be able to talk to me of all people, but fine. Let me see your arm, and this time please don't throw a fit." This time she obediently presented her arm to him. He removed an orange stone and after placing his own arm against her and pressed the stone onto their exposed skin and with it drew yet more strange symbols. After a few moments the markings faded. Ruby presumed, correctly, that it would work the same as the new invisible marks on her face did. "Anything else I can help you with Red?" Roman asked.

"...Why did you help me?" It had been gnawing away at her for some time now. Why was he helping her? He didn't have to do any of this. Logically he should have simply shot her and killed her on that rooftop, instead he takes her home and does his best to put her at ease, even apparently saving her from some kind of attack. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

"..." Roman remained silent looking silently at her for a long moment, seemingly searching for something. He abruptly stood up from his chair."Come on Red, it's easier if I just show you." Roman said as he dug around in his pocket and produced a cigar. Ruby stood to follow him, and proceeded to fall flat on her face. Roman stood there staring down on her for a moment before realizing her legs were still restrained. He unshackled her feet and led her back to the elevator, taking longer due to Ruby repeated bumping and falling over the furniture on the way there. This was eventually solved by Roman Picked Ruby up bridal style and carrying her through the pitch black room. The darkness did well to hide the bright red blush adorning Ruby's face.

They rode the elevator down. Beneath the basement and first two secret basements. It opened into a dark void. Roman reached along the left side and after a moment of fiddling he managed to grasp a lever and pull it. A set of ominous torches ignited bathing an ancient hallway in a dim ominous light. Still holding Ruby bridal style Roman walked along the hallway to the end of the hallway, ending in an ornate circle, with the center slightly walked over and depressed the center causing a door to close behind them, and with a slight start accompanied with the sound of grinding stone the circle began descending.

"Uhh...Torchwick, could you please put me down?"

"Hmm, must I though? You look positively incredible at the moment Red."

"Uhh…Y-yeah." Her blush, which had never fully disappeared returned with a vengeance. Roman couldn't help smiling, Red was simply too easy to tease, honestly he found her embarrassment far cuter then perhaps he ought to.

"Oh alright." and he set her down. They stood in silence for a few moments, and they arrived at a chamber that was better lit by several bright the middle stood a broken statue. Across from the stairwell there was a balcony of some sort that seemed shrouded in darkness, the only such place in sight. That balcony overlooked the Abyss, a tentacled mass of shadow and, in Roman's opinion, unmitigated evil. "Come on, there's something you need to see." Roman said. They made their way to the balcony and he had Ruby look down and let the visage of the Abyss sink in. This is what Roman had seen when he'd first awakened. This was what he'd set himself ablaze time and time again, until Roman was rendered unfit to link the fire ever again. He'd never forgotten his friends, how time and again they'd aided him against the myriad of demons that barred his progress. Seeing that darkness, still there undaunted almost mocking him, after all he'd done it was pointless in the end.

"What is it?"

"That would be the Abyss, Red. It's the source of the Grimm the world over, as well as quite a few nastier things."

"What? The Grimm come from that?" On the one hand it sounded ridiculous, Why of all people would Torchwick know that. On the other it seemed to feel like a grimm, like a void where normal aura should be and it certainly looked evil. As they spoke the Abyss began to pulsate and after a moment a massive bright red egg formed from the dark miasma.

"Well Red, You're going to get to see first hand how it works." at which point the egg cracked and a fully grown Nevermore burst forward charging straight at them. Mere feet from the balcony a massive symbol, a blade with a crescent moon appears and reduced the nevermore to ashes as it attempted to fly through the symbol. This was the final gift from the last company commander of the Blades of the Darkmoon, who he found out had been Sirris of the Sunless Realms only by reading the epitaph inscribed on the floor he was now standing on. She had given her life here creating a permanent barrier from which no creature devoid of a soul could pass. She had taken his body from the Kiln of the first Flame and entombed him here. She promised to follow his example and so sacrificed herself as well to halt the advance of the Abyss as he had done. At least, that was what was written at least.

From this tomb the last of the Blades of the Darkmoon met with the Warriors of Sunlight and founded their city, a fortress to stand against the Grimm. From this ancient bulwark, the city of Vale rose. Ruby was oddly silent as Roman led them back to the to the Altar of of Sunlight. "Red. This is it. This is what all the heroism and ideals in the world gets you. Believe it or not this marks the final resting places of the only people before the discovery of dust able to keep humanity alive from the Grimm, they were the blades of the Darkmoon and Warriors of Sunlight. This is a tomb to the forgotten hero, unsung and forgotten. This is the road you're walking down, It's the path I walked down before you. I don't know why I'm saying this, if I was was talking to my younger self I sure as shit wouldn't believe me. I just, I just want to try and keep you from repeating my same mistakes."

"So you just gave up?" A hint of accusation now in her voice as she met his stare with a look of solemn determination.

"...You don't understand how far I went-"

"Then tell me!"

"Just watch Red, I'll do you one better." Roman snarled back. With that he extended his arm and rolled up his own sleeve. After a few moments his arm turned to grey ash before Ruby's very eyes. The sh proceeded to splatter to the ground before returning and reforming into an arm. "I went on until my body couldn't physically continue further. My body is ash, controlled solely by my aura." instead of speaking Ruby simply looked on, horrified.

"Everything feels so very cold, I can't even feel pain or really anything anymore, I did all of this of my own volition, because I believed that it would stop _that_." Roman said pointing back towards the Abyss. "And you know what? All I did, all the friends I lost, the mountains I climbed, the monsters I slayed, it was for jack shit." Ruby was about to respond when she spied a particular mural behind him to his left.

"Red, are you hearing a word I said?"

"...Is that you?" Ruby asked. Roman looked behind him and saw him standing in a knight's regalia, with the same hairstyle looking down clutching a longsword looking positively angelic.

"Sirris always had bit a flair for the hyperbolic, but yeah, that's supposed to be me."

"How old are you?"

"I've been asleep a long time, Red." She looked at him disbelievingly. "When you're a pile of sentient ash, You can make yourself look however you like." To demonstrate, his face flashed and after a moment perfectly resembled Ruby's own face, before returning to Roman's own a moment later.

"Urgh, that's really creepy, could you please not do that again?"

"Sure, sure Red. I'm done, with my little rant, anything to say in retort?"

"Yeah, I want you to help me stop it."

"...What?" Roman's mind proceeded to short circuit at that point. Of all the responses he'd expected and had thought up witty replies handy, this was not one of them. He simply stood there slack jawed, honestly it was a rather hilarious sight. She couldn't honestly be serious, could she? "Red, I think I must have misheard you, could you repeat that?"

"Can you help me fight this thing, you apparently know more about Grimm then anyone else it seems." Ruby said motioning back towards the Abyss. Roman would later claim that his response was the result of a short but intense bout of utter insanity.

"...Sure." his assent hung heavily in the air.

"Did, did you just say yes?"

"I did bu-" He suddenly found himself gripped in a incredibly tight hug.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Ruby was practically jumping for joy. She was going to be the one to stop the Grimm once and for all!

"Red, deep breaths, deep breaths." Roman said, somewhat disquieted. He was rather unused to people touching him. When he did it to others it was fine, but when people touched him it was a whole different matter.

"Okay! So, how do we do that?"

"Well first you need to-," The sound of crackling suddenly became almost deafening. Four dark spirits, glowing a deep scarlet began to materialize around them. "Ooooookay, I'll explain later, right now we need to go." he heard no complaints as the two fled back to the elevator, activating it just as the invaders took their first solid steps out of their summoning circles. One of the invaders threw their spear nearly impaling Ruby's skull, who managed to duck just in the nick of time. The Spear imbedded itself in the elevator's stone wall, but otherwise had no further effects. "Alright then Red. First lesson, always keep a weapon handy, had you been with that weed whacker of yours we might have been able to fight them, as it stands we're lucky we got out in time."

"What were those things?" Ruby said, looking at the massive spear easily twice as thick as her arm that had nearly punched a hole in her head.

"Invaders. If you want to deal with the Abyss, you'll be facing a lot more dangerous things than just Grimm, The Abyss always breaks out it's best tools when it feels threatened, and I think it heard you just do."

"Good, it should be afraid, because we're going to be the ones to beat it once and for all! So what's step one now that we're safe?"

"That would be getting you back to Beacon. I'll compile my notes on the various demons and I'll have them sent over for you to read." Ruby seemed to deflate at his explanation for what the first step was.

"Aww, that sounds like schoolwork. I was hoping for more action, you know fighting hordes of monsters and posing dramatically over my fallen enemies like in the movies." When Ruby had first discovered that Grimm disappeared too quickly to do such things, she had been sorely disappointed, requiring two whole platefuls of cookies to get over her depression.

"Heh, I'll tell you what, when we get to monster slaying, I'll record you slaying a giant demon and we'll upload it to the dustnet." She seemed to brighten back up at that comment.

"Can we put awesome background music in like something from Steel Bullhead?" Ruby's were glowing like Roman had just offered her a plate of chocolate cookies and a glass of milk.

"Sure Red, Sure." Honestly what was wrong with him, in the span of one measly night he lets Red of all people somehow get past the miles and miles of mental fortifications and defenses he'd spent years entrenching himself with. At breakfast the next morning they actually had an almost normal conversation, well normal by Remnant standards. He did have to explain to Red why she and adam had to eat a normal breakfast and Neo got to have an ice cream tub, mint chocolate chip. He'd had to bribe Red with a plate of cookies to get her to head off to the car, Junior had obligingly sent for her at his request. The poor driver had ended up waiting close to an hour as Roman was nothing if not a perfectionist in regards to his culinary capacity.

As he baked his cookies Roman idly surveyed his life in Remnant, while in the background Adam and Neo bickered like children over which show to watch on the TV and Ruby hovered near the kitchen like a vulture spying some delicious prey. This world he'd awoken to truly was an odd one. And now, Roman was experiencing something he honestly thought had been lost for the rest of his wretched existence. As he stood making some fresh sweets for his newest little partner he was struck by a stark truth. He felt hope, that maybe, just maybe they might just be able to win, if only for this coming battle. Oh how wrong he would turn out to be.

He contacted Junior after he'd finally managed to convince Red to get in the car that would get her to the station to transport her from Vale to Beacon. They also decided on the fallback position, Patch it was decided. Junior began to ship the massive quantities of old weapons and armors to a warehouse Roman owned under an assumed name there. Junior also began moving his own resources to Patch, by the time the Vytal festival would begin in earnest Junior and his associates would be safely away from the upcoming mayhem. Junior had initially stayed firm wanting to stay at his bar and weather the storm. It wasn't until Roman had literally shown up at his doorstep and begged him that Junior got a sense of how concerned his friend was for his safety. It was the first time Junior had seen Roman visibly upset to the point of near tears. After that, Junior just went with the flow, it was simply easier on them both.

It was in fact later that month that after Roman had been captured that it occurred. Neo and Adam, bidding their time before they were to go and rescue him, were with some White Fang were transporting the last things from the warehouse to Junior's temporary new nightclub in Patch, when the city of Vale went to hell. But first before we recount Vale's struggle for survival, we must return to that fateful night for a brief interlude and introduce a few other actors to our little tragedy. It would be their actions as well, that would come to shape Vale's fate, and ultimately the fate of Remnant itself.

* * *

Jaune was in a oddly dark place. All around him shadows seemed to move and twist going still once he focused his attention on them. He'd felt like he'd been stumbling around blindly for hours. His legs burned and he was exhausted. His voice had grown hoarse, shouting first for his team, then his family, ending with frantic for someone anyone. Jaune didn't know how long he'd been lying there in the pitch black darkness before he finally received a response.

Well, what do we have here? An unseen figure spoke up suddenly. It's gender was indeterminate, but seemed oddly both deep and strangely immature.

"Huh, who's there?" Jaune said looking around frantically

Oh, just me.

"Who're you?"

I'm just they who lurk in darkness, who're you?

"Jaune, Jaune Arc, um where exactly are you?"

Just look up Jaune. Jaune looked upwards and to his shock a massive winged creature sat huddled above him. It's face was entirely covered by a white hood, but the hood was surprisingly animated and Jaune felt that it was staring back at him.

So, how did you get on the ceiling?

"I'm pretty sure you're on the ceiling, you have wings, and I don't…" Well things had certainly taken a strange turn, but it was better than wandering in the dark.

Hmm, I never thought of that… Okay! With that the Darklurker stood and spread their wings and proceeded to fly down to Jaune.

"Um, Hi…" Jaune said awkwardly, what exactly was he supposed to say, this creature was close to twelve feet tall, had four arms and massive wings.

You know, your soul is really dark, like really, really dark.

"Huh? My soul?" Jaune looked at his chest, as far he was aware his soul was somewhere in there, and he didn't see any particular darkness.

Yeah, not like mine, mine used to be super bright! With that it threw all four hands in the air as high as it could to emphasize its point.

"Uh, okay."

Oh! That's right, you're here to learn from the slab aren't you?

"Slab?" This was the first Jaune had heard of any slab...

Yeah everyone who comes here is to read from the Slab and then go off to save… Something I don't remember what it was Grandpa called it… To which the hood seemed to deflate and the angelic creature returned to huddling on the ground mumbling to itself.

"He-hey, I'm sure you'll remember! You've been really helpful so far…" It wasn't a lie, while strange this creature seemed to be at the very least friendly, and Jaune wouldn't mind a friend in this lonely void he found himself in.

You mean it?

"Yes, before I met you I was wandering around in the dark for I don't know how long. Now, where is this slab again?" Jaune said hoping to keep the angel on track, maybe the slab she kept mentioning said how to get out of here. To which the Darklurker suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. It was from the softness pressing against him that Jaune was able to determine his new angelic friend was indeed a woman, given her rather androgynous voice and neutral clothing it had been difficult to determine. Did angels even have genders? Jaune was struck by a myriad of new questions he'd probably never receive an answer to as he was swaddled in the Darklurker.

Thank you! You're the best friend ever! I'll get that Slab for you right now! Just stay right here. At which point she flew off with blinding speed. When she found the slab, she was surprised to realize she had neglected to let go of Jaune and had in fact taken him to the slab instead of the other way around.

Oops, well, here's the slab…

"Ahh, okay thank you." With that Jaune managed to disentangle himself and find the slab he had heard so much about. It was massive, easily twice the size of the Darklurker. How she was planning to carry this back to him, he didn't know. As he ran his hand over the carvings he was struck by a feeling of euphoria. It was like the universe suddenly clicked into place to Jaune and he saw what was needed of him. It was beautiful, so very beautiful. He couldn't contain himself and tears of joy began to flow freely.

Umm, Jaune? Are you okay? Are you cry- oh dear you're crying! Um um, what do I do, umm no, that won't work… Jaune turned back to the Darklurker and smiled.

"It's alright, it's just I was...Unprepared."

Oh okay, well I guess I'll be the one watching over you from now on, so if you've got any questions just ask.

With that Jaune suddenly felt exhaustion slam into him. He stumbled and would have fallen over had the Darklurker not caught him. He'd only read a part of the slab's first passage but he already wanted to spend hours reading it. As he allowed sleep to overwhelm, him he felt strangely content. While the Darklurker was busy caring for Jaune's unconscious body, they both failed to see the pair of scarlet eyes keenly observing them. After a moment the eyes disappeared unnoticed and relayed the new information back to it's master.

* * *

In team JNPR's room two shadowy figures made their way uninvited over to Nora and Ren's beds. One was a woman with ghostly pale yellow hair and wore a golden domino mask. She wore a black robe with golden embroidery. The other was a giant of a man easily seven feet tall with the massive black plate armor he wore that seemed to radiate a coldness that would make those around him shiver. The two were barely visible, illuminated only by the light of the broken moon above and better resembled dark spirits, not a bad descriptor of them really. For a moment, they stood unmoving in silence. The woman then approached Ren's bed and crouched down, slowly tracing her index finger along the contours of Ren's face, a mere hair's breadth away.

"The girl is useless to us." The man's voice was deep and hard, every syllable carried with it an almost sneering contempt for the subject of its attention. As the figure gazed down on Nora, the blade in his hand began to twitch and shake with bloodlust. These little cretins thought their precious aura would protect them, oh they would learn that the Abyss was more than capable of bypassing that simple parlor trick. The bile began to rise in his throat and his rage began to near its breaking point.

"Yurt, calm yourself. Her time will come I assure you, but that time is not now."

"...As you wish." Yurt replied slowly sheathing his blade. "What of the boy?"

"Oh I see _great_ potential in him. Perhaps, even greater potential than what I saw within you." Yurt bristled at the comment before slowly relaxing as his companion let out an amused chuckle. "Honestly my dear, dear, Silent Chief, your armor may be harder than steel, but your skin is thinner than paper."

"Lady Mephistopheles, I simply don't find the idea of my death very funny." To which she smirked at him

"Oh Yurt. I would never think to replace you, rather I was merely saying that he is a tool of exceptional craftsmanship. We will discard him after his service is complete, rest assured. We must go soon, the blonde boy will awaken shortly. Should they survive, I imagine things shall get rather exciting for us." Even with his helmet obscuring his face, Mephistopheles saw the mad glee that glimmered in his eyes. It was matched by the sadistic glee that was twinkling in her own eyes. When Jaune jerked awake, his mind filled with vague memories of angels and slabs, he saw nothing out of place and after a few moments settled back down to sleep a few more hours. This time he had a pleasant dreamless slumber, oblivious to all the players weaving around him trying to change the game to their personal advantage.

* * *

Headmaster Ozpin rarely had much time to devote to his hobbies these days. Between his official job as a school's headmaster running as prestigious a hunting academy as Beacon, playing politician to Vale's council to get them to stop second-guessing him. Not to mention playing detective attempting to uncover the identity of a shadowy figure that was quite possibly a delusion created by his overworked mind, it was a miracle he could still find the free time left over to breath.

As he sat in his office, enjoying a rare reprieve he noticed a box was sitting in the middle of his desk. Deciding to take a closer look, he opened the box and found an exquisite yellow scarf inside. As he tried it on, he was suddenly struck by an unceasing rage. Panic seized him as he tried desperately to retain his mind as a miasma of hate began to settle over his mind. With a crash he flung the contents on top of his desk to the ground as he began stumbling around blindly, barely able to keep to his feet.

Slowly, Ozpin sunk to his knees and his movements became slower and less erratic. Finally, he stopped struggling altogether and merely remained on his knees still as a statue. After a moment Ozpin began to slowly get to his feet and rearrange the things back on his desk as if nothing had happened. Ozpin returned to his seat and clicked open several other secret compartments on the box. From these compartments a host of small strange insectoid creatures made their way out and began to scurry around his office with some leaving through an opening and proceeding to descend and infest the rest of Beacon. As Ozpin sat in his office like a stone sculpture, a grin began to grow on his face.

It grew longer and wider, eventually splitting the skin resulting in blood beginning to pour forth from his torn lips. As Ozpin sat in his chair with a manic grin he felt a dark sense of fulfillment begin to take hold. Soon, so very soon. The old order would all come crashing down and in the darkness that awaited he would rule. Though as the spirit of the Old Monk grew accustomed to it's latest host, it felt a sense of unease, as if it's host was not completely overwhelmed by its magnificence. The demon discarded the thoughts a few moments later. It was an Archdemon after all, there was no way for a mere mortal could hope to defy it.

* * *

Standing around watching her partner threaten to beat some poor student to death was not how Blake Belladonna had expected to spend her nights at Beacon. For the past few weeks however, Yang had been on a utter warpath. Blake had been hearing the same rumors as well, but had thought little of them. It was salacious to be sure, but it was also ultimately harmless. After all, no one could truly believe such trash, could they? But Yang had been adamant, and had somehow managed to rope Blake into finding the source of these rumors and stamping them out once and for all. This two woman campaign had taken it's toll and frankly Blake had fallen asleep so many times in Professor Port's class that he'd been obliging enough to let her bring her pillow and blanket to class now. Sometimes Blake wondered if this wasn't isolating Ruby further, as both she and Yang kept their distance busy searching for the culprit.

It was already well past midnight and this poor sack of flesh which might have once been a person wasn't going to tell them anything they didn't already know. Yang finally let go of him and the poor kid didn't even run away, he just curled into a ball and sobbed. Yang sighed in frustration.

"They just don't make'em like they used to Blakey." To which, Blake's bow twitched.

"One: This one lasted seven minutes before screaming in terror, a new record. And two: Don't call me that." Yang looked over at her and smirked.

"Aww, come on, you know you love it." To which Blake simply glared in response. Before she could respond, Yang's scroll went off and distracted the two of them. Yang answered it, and blake Idly noticed the poor student crawling slowly away, a part of her pitied him, his friend had tripped him up, causing Yang to pounce on him. The look of betrayal on his face had been positively heartbreaking.

"Hello, hey! No, I mean yes. Damnit, You can't honestly be calling this late over something as small as that! She-she did what! Okay, thanks for the heads up I guess, bye."

"Something the matter, Yang?"

"Glynda apparently called my dad and scheduled a meeting for after the festival! She apparently said I have anger issues!" Blake couldn't help but look at the bloodtrail that the anonymous student had left in his wake as he had crawled away.

"So that was your dad then?"

"No, that was Junior."

"Isn't he the owner of the bar you destroyed? How does he know about these kinds of things?"

"Yeah, but he also has contacts all over the place and after I nearly burned his bar down, we made a deal."

"Oh?" This was something she hadn't heard of before.

"I promise to make sure no one else ever burns the bar down and he gives me heads up on what's going on with Vale's criminals."

"Think he could help us find Torchwick?"

"Already asked Blakey. Said he couldn't do that, apparently their friends and Junor refuses to rat him out."

"That's surprising."

"I know, who'd of thought Roman had any friends."

"Roman, so we've gotten to a first name basis now?"

"Sorry, Junior keeps calling him that and it rubs off after a while. Listen can we just move on?" Yang said blushing slightly in embarrassment. Something clicked suddenly in Blake's mind. While her face was utterly placid, internally however the grin Blake had resembled a cat that had finally cornered it's prey. Blake may have finally found a chink in Yang's armor. Since they'd first met Yang had seemed utterly shameless and had taken immense pleasure in finding all sorts of ways to tease and embarrass her. Well, now there was something that she might be able to use against Yang in the future. Blake may not know yet what it was about Junior that made Yang embarrassed but she would find out, and her revenge on Yang would be oh so _sweet_. While Blake filed away this little bit of information for later investigation Yang barely stifled a yawn

"Well, we didn't get much from him, want to see if we can find another lead?"

"Yang, it's one in the morning. Can we please go to bed? I already sleep through Port's class most days, I don't think Glynda will be so forgiving if I fall asleep in her class as well."

"Fine, but don't you give up on me now. We're getting close, I can feel it. When I do get my hands on them, I swear I'll make those bastards _pay_." Blake felt a bit of pity rise within her once more. Not for Yang's future victim and/or victims mind you, rather Blake pitied the poor janitor who'd have to scrap those victims off the ceiling and walls after Yang was through with them.

* * *

 **Well, that pretty much wraps up Chapter 2. I had a few other ideas of characters I wanted to highlight but this was getting long enough as it was. One quick thing to note, this Darklurker is descended from the one fought in DS2. As to why it's acting so bizarrely, it's the remnants of the original Darklurker's soul, having been destroyed, with the holes in it's soul patched up by whatever scraps it managed to find lying around within the Abyss. This caused it to possess a childlike and innocent demeanor, whether that behavior remains down the road… Well, we'll just have to wait and see. If I'm allowed some self-criticism, I feel that Jaune's part in particular may be in need of a rewrite, but that'll have to wait until something really strikes me, as I know where I want it to go, it just the road getting there that's tricky.**

 **Also it's possible I may be able to get a second chapter out this month, it'll depend mostly on how this week turns out, but this coming chapter was actually where I'd first considered starting the story.**

 **I've received a few reviews since my first chapter:**

 **Guest: Not to worry, I have a plan for him and Lautrec both, but that's still being ironed out so I chose not to disclose too many details this chapter**

 **Roach99: Thank you very much. I'm glad you liked the first chapter.**

 **Otaku-Nation666: Thank you.**

 **Touhou is Life: That's quite alright, I hope this chapter was enough to convince you, was there anything in particular that you didn't care for?**

 **Ultron emperor: 'kay**

 **Until next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm very late, and It's a shorter chapter than normal, I know. College has gotten in the way pretty badly, so this will be the last chapter a write for any of my stories for a while. This chapter has been beta'd by Sixteen Vanilla Beans, who helped fix up my story and make it presentable for everyone, considering this is the fourth iteration of this particular chapter that was no easy task. Enjoy.**

Fire, there was so much fire, it flickered and crackled unnaturally all around her… Winter Schnee found herself on her knees, utterly spent and covered in wounds of various depths and types. Her sword was shattered and the hilt buried in the wall next to her head, the blade was nestled painfully in her stomach. She saw her team, the one she'd fought and bled with since her first days at Atlas's academy, lying around her in states of death, or dying. Dried blood flecked across her face, but she didn't notice any of it. Winter's attention was focused solely on the three people in front of her, wreathed by dark, almost blood red, demonic flames. One of them was her partner, the other two were the people responsible for this hell she was living in.

"Well, this is certainly turning into an exciting little clusterfuck, isn't it?" Roman Torchwick, at the time some nameless low level thug, said to his partner. She was a short girl with brown and pink hair and eyes that seemed to continually be changing colors, though that could simply be the result of Winter's blood loss from the multiple stab wounds. His grin was that of a devil being delivered a fresh soul to devour as he stood with his cane resting casually in his hands. The little girl merely turned and gave him an energetic thumb's up accompanied by a matching malicious grin.

Winter's partner was lying on the tile floor between the two of them, a parasol's blade skewered through his spine. He had blood pouring from his mouth, but he wasn't quite dead yet. He looked at her and attempted to speak some sort of final words. It seemed fate was against such a notion as Roman casually angled his cane to line up with a fracture in her partner's helmet. With a quick pull of the trigger and an odd echoing blast, Winter watched her partner of over four years die right in front of her; his last words forever left unspoken as a hole in his head smoldered from the blast. No, not die. He was killed, murdered by the pair of monsters in front of her. Roman casually raised his cane and leveled it at Winter's head. A thin veneer of blood now coated the tip of the cane and began to slowly drip from its tip. As Roman prepared to fire, his eyes met with her's, he hesitated for a moment, then spoke to her.

"Sorry it had to go this way sweetheart, but what's done is done, can't change it now. From where you're sitting it must look like you've had a truly legendary run of bad luck. I'll let you in on the little secret, though, just between us. The game was rigged before you even stepped on the board." with that Roman squeezed the trigger and fired. As the sound of the blast rang out Winter's vision went dark as the round collided squarely between her eyes and detonated.

The world around her shattered like glass and her mind was flung down into the uncomfortable inky darkness of her subconscious. There was something else here something alien, something unnatural in this darkness. Winter began looking for it, and off in the distance she saw a strange pinkish light begin to emanate. However, before she could move towards the light, a new nightmare soon took shape within her mind, forming colors and images that clouded her eyes and covering the light that quickly faded from memory. This dream was equally as painful and demented as the one she'd just experienced, this time she'd been trapped in the control room and had been forced to watch the massacre without being able to do a thing to stop it. This continued for hours before she'd finally broken down mentally. She watched, completely disconnected from her body, as she began to participate in the murder of her comrades in this vicious dreamworld, and soon enough she replaced Roman entirely in these dark visions. Winter couldn't help but marvel at her skill at creating carnage, the pyromancy lining her nightmare simply didn't give her any choice but to be enraptured by the bloodshed. She was blessedly struck with amnesia of the atrocities she partook in when her dreams began to dissipate. As she began to awaken, however, Winter remembered the name and the smirking arrogant face of one Roman Torchwick looking down triumphantly as the flames reached up and burned her world around her.

With a start, Winter jerked awake, a cold sweat drenching her was the third time this month, always the same nightmare. Winter had been suffering these nightmares for a long time, even seeking out psychological help when these nightmares had begun to affect her day to day performance. Her psychologist claimed these dreams were the vague recollections of that traumatic experience mixed with what she'd been told later regarding the event during her recovery.

Winter had thought she'd made a full recovery, that these events were behind her as the frequency of these nightmares had lessened and the wounds that night left behind, both physical and mental, faded. This trend changed when the man responsible was dragged onto the ship and thrown into it's brig. Roman Torchwick was, as far as they knew, the only other living being with first hand experience of what came to be known as the Inferno massacre, named as almost everything in the facility, including the bodies of her comrades, had been burned, with the illumination that massive bonfire created being what lead a squad of hunters to investigate and discover the remnants of what had been a truly monolithic military force. It was said this was the moment the modern Dust smuggling trade was born.

He was currently residing in one of the cells below. He was the most dangerous man she'd crossed paths with, the most dangerous _thing_ she'd ever had the misfortune to meet. He was leagues beyond any Grimm In one night, Roman Torchwick had somehow managed to completely decimate Atlas  & Vale's joint anti-Dust smuggling task force. The identity of the person who'd leaked the secret information regarding the base's location was still a matter of friction between the two kingdoms five years on. Now they'd finally captured him and soon enough he'd face the firing squad for what he'd done. She should be happy; her friends were finally going to get the closure they'd deserved but been denied for close to half a decade. For whatever reason, though, she felt a strange sense of loss. After devoting so much hate towards the man, the thought that it was truly coming to a close was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Slowly, Winter made her way to her personal bathroom on the ship. She turned the water to an icy cold and took a shower. The water cascaded along her slender figure and she let the showers icy embrace run across her skin and chill her to her veins, which moments before had been boiling. After getting dried and properly dressed. she began making her way to accomplish what she'd set out to do for days now but lacked the nerve to do it. She would get answers before they put him down She slowly made her way to the holding cells. It was early in morning; the sun hadn't even managed to break through the horizon yet. So Winter was surprised to see there was already a group standing outside her target's cell.

"Heh, you're not the too bad kid, shame you don't have any idea what's coming," Roman chuckled as team CFVY did their best to stone-facedly ignore him. Fox suddenly clutched his stomach in apparent pain. "Something you ate this morning kid, or are you just not used to airships? Believe me, I felt sick the first day they stuck me in this little cell. Well, except I'm not a pathetic little brat who can't keep the garbage they call food down."

"Do you ever shut up?" The leader of the team, Coco, snapped in exasperation as Fox slowly made his way to the bathroom for the third time since arriving on the ship an hour ago.

"Nope!" Roman replied cheerfully. His grin disappeared when Winter made her way into his cell's view.

"Try asking him about his employers. We haven't found anything that'll make him clam up faster than that," Winter said as she approached the group.

"Ahh, Ironwood's little pet has finally come for a 's a pleasure seeing you again, Winter."

"I'm glad to see you remember me, Roman." Her smile promised he would soon be on the receiving end of unimaginable pain, making Roman somewhat reassured to have a top of the line security wall securely between the two of them.

"I never forget a pretty face. Besides, I doubt either of us will going to forget that night anytime soon." His eyes became downcast for a brief moment before the sneering veneer returned, though that brief lapse was noticed by all parties. No one chose to comment.

"I see." Winter turned to the remaining members of CFVY "Leave us, now."

"Wish we could ma'am, we're under strict orders to escort him to a location to be specified once we have him in our custody. We radioed in a few minutes ago and are waiting for a response." Roman began scowling, mumbling unintelligible things to the other parties around him.

"Hey, Hot Topic, would you actually like to know my boss's name?" Roman said suddenly, his face held an odd neutrality seemingly looking past them and focused on something in the distance. His question surprised the entire group, and it took a moment for Coco to respond.

"Just like that?"

"Well, I do need one thing first…"

"We're not letting you out, we're not getting you any cigars, and for the fiftieth time, no I don't know where your hat is," Coco snapped at him, to which Roman maintained his poker face.

"I wasn't asking for anything so dramatic my dear, I was simply going to ask for you to lock the doors, I'm deathly concerned for my safety you see." Roman said motioning to the two sets of doors leading into and out of the cell block.

"Why? You're already locked up in there, you can't get much safer at least until you get taken to the firing squad." Coco said, looking confused at his request.

"Yes, but what you fail to realize my dear, is that those are unbreakable locks. Believe me, I've picked enough locks to know, and if we wanted to ensure there are no interruptions, say from a couple of my beloved employer's agents that were already placed onboard the ship…"

"You're saying there are spies on board the ship?" Winter was dubious, but couldn't really declare it false outright, nor could she quite shake the sense of paranoia his statement created in her mind. Right now, Roman and the White Fang were the only confirmed members of the organization, yet it was obvious from the reports that there was someone else pulling the strings. Those people could well be connected to Atlas, or they may not. There simply wasn't enough information to go on yet.

"Wow, I was afraid the subtlety of stating something outright would slip under your radar, but it seems you've managed to catch my meaning. I'm so very proud of you." Roman said, and not for the first time wanted a cigar, they always managed to help keep his snideness to a minimum

"…I don't think-" Coco began

"Do it," Winter interrupted Coco. Was that really the reason he'd been so resistant in the interrogations? Didn't he trust that his interrogators had been sufficiently vetted to know they weren't actually watching him for his employer? Admittedly barring Ironwood and herself, he might have a point, there had been a large number of transfers after several people came down with a mystery illness recently. There was a third of the total soldiers stationed onboard the vessel who she head never served with and didn't know anything about… These people were a variable that lent credence to his claim, even lacking concrete evidence it seemed too possible to dismiss out of hand. But now the question of what prompted Roman's sudden willingness to speak entered Winter's mind "Why are you talking now, afraid this may be your final days on Remnant?"

"Not at all. In fact, I plan on living for a quite a while longer, at least long enough to enjoy my savings at least. It just so happens I wanted to make sure that if I'm going to risk my life telling you miserable lot anything, best to be sure it'll actually be to someone not on her payroll," to which he inclined his head to team CFVY. Before Winter could respond, the sound of the locks engaging was audible.

"Okay, the doors are locked," for emphasis Coco tugged on the doors which refused to budge even slightly. "Now talk," Coco said glaring at him over her sunglasses.

"Well, just before you were telling me to do the exact opposite. What do you want to talk about? The weather, or perhaps my latest fling? You see she was-" Roman had a sly grin but obligingly stopped when Winter interrupted him. She repeated a question they'd been asking him since they'd incarcerated him onboard the ship, and to which no amount of waterboarding, electric shocks or plain old fashioned beatings had pried a satisfactory answer from his smirking lips.

"Who do you work for?"

"Her name is Cinder Fall, she was supposedly born in Mistral, the evidence is pretty weak, and she was a low-level Dust smuggler for a few years. One day she just promptly disappeared off the face of the earth." Roman made a poof sound effect and used his hands for emphasis before continuing. "She remerged close to nine years ago, with access to resources and powers not previously seen by anyone. Got all of that so far kids?" He'd lost a decent chunk of his network in Mistral to get those paltry scraps of information, her patron's reach was long and powerful indeed. What had prompted his sudden change of heart was the realization of just who it was that most likely was supporting her. His suspicions were enough and so he'd devised his own plan to deal with both Cinder and her benefactor, all in one fell swoop.

Winter was simply stunned into silence. For days they had interrogated him, he hadn't given them a single thing that had become workable intel in that entire time. Now he was just tossing out details like it was nothing, and without the slightest application of pressure to boot. Team CFVY seemed equally shocked at their success where Atlas's best interrogators had failed. Before they could ask anything further something began banging loudly against the reinforced door. It began increasing in tempo and ferocity until it seemed like a single continuous crash. No one said a word, they merely waited to see what would transpire, as something attempted to break through and get inside the cell block. After a few minutes, the noise abruptly ceased and Winter swore she could almost hear screams coming in the distance.

"Well, that certainly doesn't sound good," Roman said, breaking the silence. Before anyone could speak further the door flew inwards with the lock being ripped off the wall. The door was propelled by the force of the shattered corpse of some poor random Atlesian soldier, his face frozen in a vision of utter terror. "You wouldn't happen to know where my cane is now would you, Ice Queen?" Winter turned to yell something at him when something she hadn't realized up to now suddenly clicked in her mind.

"How'd you get out of your cell!?" She looked on in horror as Roman Torchwick, the abomination who'd caused her so much suffering, stood mere inches from her. Somehow, he'd managed to get within inches of her face without her realizing it. If he wanted to he could probably lean forward and touched her! The thought was sickening and made bile begin to rise in Winter's throat.

"Well, the door opened. I feel like the concept of walking should be something you should really understand. You Schnee do understand the concept, yes? It's that thing your servants are doing when they carry you around your personal palace."

"Get back in your cell!"

"…Nah, I think I'd like to find my way off this ship before the thing that just did _that_ finds me," Roman said as he pointed to the fresh corpse. He didn't manage to get far, the perpetrator stumbled into the light before Roman had even managed to take a single step toward the exit. Fox stumbled forward drunkenly; his twin blades, and his entire upper body to a lesser extent, were drenched in blood that didn't belong to him. His auburn hair was disheveled and his face was sweating while he was breathing quite heavily. With a few steps forward he abruptly halted. Fox stood there panting, his head angled down to hide his face from view. He took one more shaky breath and began to speak.

"Boss...Run. Please, I don't want to hur-urgh!" Fox suddenly clutched his chest, while his whole body seemed to quake and shiver. Just underneath his skin strange tendrils were visible as they twisted and coiled, causing to start moving erratically. In a burst of inhuman speed, he suddenly launched himself at his former teammates, his blades ready to carve them to pieces. A single fireball proved powerful enough to stop his momentum cold and send him crashing to the floor. Fox found both Winter and Roman still between him and his targets. His entire demeanor changed. Before he was relatively calm and collected, now his growls and feral hisses echoed quite loudly as they filled the cell block.

"Hey, Ice Queen," Roman said, his voice cold and brokered no disagreement as he kept his eyes trained on the murderous former hunter-in-training.

"What?" Winter spat out after taking a moment to compose herself.

"Do what you can with the three kiddos behind us. I'm going to deal with him." Before Winter had a moment to reply Fox let loose a bestial howl and rushed forward once more, his target this time being the two figures currently standing in his way. Winter was the one to counter this attack, disregarding Roman's instructions Winter took matters into her own hands. She wouldn't take orders from _him_ of all people, the very idea was repugnant. Parrying away Fox's arm blades and, while sidestepping one his swings, Winter drove her boot quite brutally into Mr. Alistair's knee. The sound of muscle tearing and bones crunching became audible in the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the cell block. She locked her swords with each of his arm blades and used this as leverage to slam Fox against a wall, pulling back on her hold she was surprised when this seemed to break his shoulder blades instead of offering the sort of resistance that she'd been expecting. With his movement impaired and having been effectively disarmed, this should have been the end of the fight.

Instead as he struggled, a large black creature suddenly burst out from Fox's back. It was serpent-like, except for several rows of white spikes that studded the top of its head. It was almost like a Grimm, with its black body and glowing red eyes, but it looked more like a black sludge then the solid black coat of most Grimm. Winter was forced to disengage, losing the smaller of her blades in the process, and leap back to avoid being bitten in half by the newly transformed Pus of Man. Instead of charging forward this time, Fox sank to his knees, seemingly content to allow the monster on his back to do the attacking for him. From his left side, another mass of darkness exploded out just above his shoulder, causing the muscles and skin to tear down to his hip which caused his left side to droop down to the ground, exposing the mass of tissues and various organs contained within.

That dark mass slowly formed into a rather gnarled giant talon of a hand. The beast slammed its newly formed hand into the ground and began to slowly drag itself towards them, leaving a thick trail of black sludge, blood and intestines behind. With no other avenue, Roman sighed and began to chant out a pyromancy. When the monstrosity that was once Fox Alistair hobbled its way to within range, Roman pointed his hand at the black mass and let loose a blistering stream of blood-red flames. It burnt the abyssal entity to a crisp. Even with the flames however it continued forward refusing to simply lay down and die. Winter finally managed to end it by driving her blade through the beast's head as it slowly approached, and even with all of this punishment, the creature still proved resilient and thrashed around violently one final time before collapsing to the ground, defeated. It was still somewhat twitching when Roman sauntered over behind it and reached down, seizing the juncture where the serpent's head met the host body. With a strong tug and a mountainous spray of blood, Roman ripped the parasite straight out of Fox's back. This left a wide gaping hole at the base of Fox's spine and blood was flowing freely from that hole. Roman knew Fox was dying either way, might as well let him die as himself, not to mention he needed some information to start hunting for where this parasite had come from. With the parasite removed, Fox's mind cleared and he began trying to speak.

"What's-"

"Shh, it's okay, well not really in your case, brat. You've got a couple minutes before the shock and or Abyss takes you. Better use you last minutes well, I'll buy you what little time I can. In exchange, I need to know a few things before your grand farewell." With that Roman began doing his best to using what paltry healing spells he possessed that wouldn't leaving him entirely depleted. "First off, when'd you start feeling that stomach pain and where?" as he spoke a golden hue erupted from Roman's hands and the massive hole in Fox's back stopped pouring out quite so much blood

"Urgh, at B-Beacon, a couple days ago."

"Do you remember anything specific, anyone or anything that stuck out when the pain first started?"

"We… we were meeting the headmaster," Fox was speaking calmly and appeared to be getting stronger, and as the massive hole in his shoulder sealed shut as well, he seemed to be on the mend. Roman could already feel his healing begin to falter, unfortunately. The tendrils inside him were decaying leaving behind a toxic residue that was beginning to eat away at his insides. Roman began amplifying the healing, increasing the aura he was using but he was painfully aware that he was approaching the point where he would have to cut it off as the healing simply wouldn't make any difference past a certain point.

"Anything strange about the old man?" Of course, 'old' was a highly subjective term in Roman's opinion, but considering Ozpin's soul was an incredibly powerful one, though still leagues below his, Roman could certify that Ozpin could indeed be or at least live to be a very old man. In response to the question, Fox nodded.

"He was, oddly happy, and he kept playing with this really ornate box, his clothes…"

"What about his clothes?"

"They were gold, the whole thing was bright blinding yellow."

"Okay kid, that's more than enough." He turned to the rest of Fox's team and motioned for them to come over. "I've done all I can, say what you have to and say it quick." While the rest of the team began saying their farewells, Roman made his way over to Winter and spoke to her.

"Well, Ice Queen, care to call a truce for the moment?" to which she simply looked at him angrily. Roman simply shrugged. "I'll take silence as a yes then."

"What happened that night?" Winter asked defiantly as Roman averted his gaze, taking an intense interest in the metal wall in front of him instead.

"You should stick with the amnesia, it's better than knowing the truth."

"No, you want to leave here under your own power you'll tell me what happened!" Winter was enraged for reasons that were obvious. Yet, for some reason she didn't know, when the creature had advanced on them she'd been concerned for Roman's safety. These stray thoughts had cropped up before. Now, however, with him here in front of her, these bizarre thoughts and feelings were practically buzzing unceasingly through her mind. Roman sighed and looked at her sympathetically.

"You want to know the truth, fine. I'll tell you what happened that night, but just so when I get hauled before a judge, remember, I warned you."

With that, Roman recounted that night in brutal detail. The mission plan was to humiliate the joint task force and gain some notoriety, as the people who made the authorities look like a bunch of incompetent clowns. The job called for a three-person squad and they'd needed an inside man, or woman in this case, among them. She had acted her part perfectly, escorting him in, under the pretense of finding him snooping too close to the facility. She'd taken him to the holding cells. From there, things had gone horribly, horribly, wrong. Neo had proceeded to the barracks and it was here a trace of the pyromancy escaped its confines and ran wild amongst the soldiers. The soldiers became little more than husks that craved violence and destruction for its own sake. At that same time, Winter damaged the armory doors previously and prevented anyone from getting access to the heavy weapons. Winter and Neo had a field day with the people still alive, making mincemeat of those few who'd survived the soul-crazed soldiers that remained. When they had finally gotten around to freeing him from his cell, he took stock of the situation and began going about cleaning the whole mess up. Roman burned the recordings and bodies, Neo tore the place apart and Winter simply helped to show him where the secret backup recordings were located. From there Roman and Neo took a Bullhead and left Winter to wake up and report what had happened to the authorities.

"That's insane, there's no way on Remnant that ever happened!" Winter denied his story, but for some reason, her denial sounded strangely hollow, even to her own ears.

"Not willingly, no. But there are ways." As Winter stormed towards him, intent on cutting his twisted little head off, he held open his hand and a small red orb materialized. She froze instantly, unable to move.

"For the little that it's worth, I am sorry. I didn't plan on anyone dying, it's just… Things just got wildly out of hand. Rapport wasn't supposed to work that way, but it did. Right now, though, I'm afraid we have bigger problems. Now, I know you probably hate me, believe me, I get it, you've probably some pretty good reasons to do so. I reached into you head and monkeyed about for my own ends, that's my bad. However, right now we need to work together, and you can do this willingly or I can make you, do keep that in mind going forward." His little soliloquy complete he allowed the pyromancy to disperse, and to his relief Winter chose not to attempt to decapitate him once she regained control of her faculties. Roman felt a presence behind him. Turning, he saw the rabbit faunus was standing there a pale shade of what she had been merely a few minutes prior.

"Please, please he still needs help..." Roman looked past her and saw the rest of the young hunters had their faces framed by the tears streaking down their faces for all to see. There wasn't much life in any of their eyes, it was a look of utter pain and grief with a hollow void behind it. She didn't expect him to be able to anything, she just deeply wished he could. Coco was on her knees cradling Fox's lifeless body in her arms. His eyes were glassy and his muscles limp. He seemed almost at peace, a far cry from the despair his teammates were in. The Large fellow, Yatsuhashi, was standing with his hands so tightly clenched that the knuckles were turning white. Of the three Coco seemed to be taking it the worst, the boy was probably her partner he surmised.

"There's nothing I can do now, but you know that don't you kid?" She broke down sobbing then and for a few minutes all that was heard in that desolate Brig was the heart-wrenching sobs of Fox's teammates as they came to terms with his passing.

"Why…" Coco choked out after a minute.

That's war, kids." Roman felt strange calling them kids instead of brat or some nickname for them, but at the moment it just seemed appropriate. Sitting there cradling her friends dead body, wishing beyond anything that he'd come back somehow, she was scared out of her mind and it reminded Roman so much of the orphans he'd seen on the road to Boletaria. "I'll make you three a deal, I can't bring your friend back." He looked at Fox's body and scowled in agitation. Even after all these years it still made him uneasy, seeing the corpses of those he still considered children, the casualties in a war they knew nothing of. "But I can probably deliver you the man responsible." At this, all eyes became focused solely on the master thief.

"How?" This time Coco spoke; her voice was hoarse and muted. There was

strength in her voice, though. It was a strength born from hate and misery, but there was steel shrouded in that pain.

"These parasites don't last terribly long without a host in Vale's environment, it's too warm for them. So they need to be transported in specific conditions, couple that with he got sick at Ozpin's office, and I believe that the box he mentioned could be what carried them to Vale. Find who sent the box, and we'll have your killer, assuming my hunch is right." In the distance, deep within the dark bowels of the ship, another animalistic roar could be heard. "This, of course, assumes we manage to get off this ship." Roman walked over to Coco and hovered a few feet from her. "Come on kid, we need to get moving." His voice was subdued and the closest he could get to gentle.

"We can't leave him here..." Looking over at his cell Roman motioned to it and Coco stared, not understanding his gesture.

"Look, hot topic, we can't just drag a corpse from one end of this airship to the other. That cell's by far the safest place for the body. I promise he'll get a proper burial once this all over." Coco didn't say anything, she just slowly carried the body and placed it gingerly inside the cell. With a slight hiss, the door sealed itself shut once again. With his back to the wall, it almost looked like Fox was just sleeping. For a moment Coco's hand rested on the glass. A few moments later Winter's scroll went off and the moment was lost. She answered quickly and received a rather garbled message.

"Winter… Get to…Defend the Bridge!" The crackling voice of a panicked Atlesian soldier called out before heard over a massive crackle of static before the call abruptly dropped.

"Any idea how to get to the Bridge from here, Ice Queen?" The sound of Coco's minigun cranking up was audible behind them.

"We're not going to the Bridge before we clear this ship of those _things_ ," Coco said, her voice seething with hate. Winter was about to protest, Before being pushed out of the way by Roman as the three remaining members of team CFVY stormed past him. She glared at him in annoyance and politely explained in clinical detail what would happen if he laid a hand on her again. Roman raised his hands in surrender and attempted to explain himself.

"Ice Queen, I know you love your orders and all but those three have murder in their eyes, best not to get in their way if you want to remain in one piece."

"We still need to get to the bridge. If someone was to get access to the ship's weapons..."

"Then we need to clear this ship quickly then. Now, if you'd please tell me where you lot stowed my beloved Melodic Cudgel, we can go get it and hopefully get to the Bridge before it falls to those mysterious assailants."

"Or…" The wheels in Winter's head turning and accompanied by a look that said her inner schemer was showing.

"Or?" Roman's eyebrows quirked up in confusion.

"Or, I provide you your cane, and you help me secure the Bridge."

"And we leave three deeply unsettled teenagers to fight a horde of monsters by themselves?" Roman asked, somewhat incredulously.

"They have their mission, and now I have mine. Besides, they appear to have the situation well in hand." After a moment, Roman shrugged, while in the distance the sounds of battle became audible.

"So long as the kid's body gets a good burial, and I get my cane, I believe I can agree with that." Winter smiled, but it was one entirely devoid of warmth like a smile is generally supposed to. It seemed her inner Schnee was finally getting some use. After all, her family had made its fortune selling its soul to the devil, though the guise would change the mentality did not.

"Make no mistake Torchwick, I still hate you more than anything on this planet today. I'm going to enjoy watching you die. However, I don't plan on getting rid of you until you can't serve my interests any further."

"Whatever floats your boat, Ice Queen. Now please, lead the way." What Winter failed to realize was that when she took the lead, Roman sent a covert message to a certain young huntress.

Said huntress groaned and vaguely reached for the alarm to make it stop. Groaning, Ruby sat up in her bed to look for whatever was making such a racket. After a moment Ruby realized it was coming from her arm, and suddenly she was wide awake. The message was from Roman and simply said.

"Get your team ready, get to a Bullhead and get to Ironwood's flagship, there's been an incident."

After reading the message, Ruby replied:

"Okay, what excuse should I tell my team?"

"Have you considered that as the team leader you don't have to answer to them and thus don't need an excuse other then you said so?"

"That's really rude… Come on Roman! Help me come up with an excuse, please?"

"I can feel your puppy dog eyes from here, Red. Just say you want to make sure I'm really secure or something. I'll meet you on the Bridge."

"Okay! Ruby Rose over and out!"

"...Sure Red, whatever."

With that Ruby quickly showered and prepared for her mission now fully awake. She roused her teammates, much to their annoyance, and they reluctantly followed along after their intrepid leader.

"Ruby, you dolt, what are you doing making us get up this early in the morning?" Weiss moaned, as she walked slowly after her partner. Weiss and Yang better-resembled zombies slowly trudging after her. Blake was still asleep, she'd been awake just long enough to get ready then had climbed onto Yang's back and had Yang carry her while Blake returned to the wondrous land of dreams.

"Sis, whatever it is, I'm sure we can just go back to bed, and do this later in the morning," Yang groaned.

"Nope! We're going to make sure of this now, that way we won't miss classes today."

"Make sure of what?" Weiss groaned in frustration. Before Ruby could respond they had arrived at the departure point for Bullheads and surprisingly saw team JNPR up as well, though Nora was much the same way as Blake was, clinging to Ren's back and still happily asleep.

"Hey, guys, what're you up to?" Ruby asked enthusiastically. Jaune returned the enthusiasm, the rest of his team were

"Jaune's gone insane," Ren mumbled between yawns as a lone Bullhead began to approach.

"I have not, I just want to make sure that he hasn't escaped." Jaune couldn't explain to his team he was following the advice of an angelic voice in his head...Maybe he was crazy after all.

"Jaune, wouldn't we have heard in the news if Torchwick did manage to escape?" Pyrrha said, rubbing her bleary eyes. secretly she suspected there was some other reason Jaune wanted to get onto Ironwood's ship, but she couldn't understand why that would be.

"Not if he's making his escape right now," Ruby chimed in. By now, the Bullhead had arrived by this point and they filled in. After they were heading for Blue 2, which was supposed to be holding Roman Torchwick, Weiss spoke again.

"Ruby, if, no when, it turns out this was a fool's errand, you're not getting any sweets for a month. I will personally make sure of it," Weiss scolded her partner tiredly. To her surprise, Ruby seemed entirely unworried about this threat and nodded in acceptance.

"That's fine since I'm right, does that mean we can go for ice cream since class might not have started by then?"

"Just on the one in ten billion chance you are correct, I'm saying no," to which Ruby proceeded to whimper sadly.

"But Weeeiissssss…" Ruby protested, looking miserable as tears streamed down her eyes. Her partner, however, remained unmoved.

The ride was uneventful until a pair of purple beams lacerated the hull of the Bullhead on its approach. Despite the pilot's best efforts, the ship began careening uncontrollably towards the bow of Blue 2. Most were awake, but everyone was awakened by the forced landing on top of the ship, a strangled cry their only warning. The Bullhead slammed down onto the top deck of the ship with a deafening boom and skidded along the top of the ship, grinding metal against metal. During the crash, the dust-filled fuel tanks ruptured, combined with the damaged electrical work the fuel soon caught flame and began to burn the exterior of the ship while cooking the inside like a boiler. The two Crystal Sages merely looked at each other in silence from their roost above. After a moment of contemplating the scene before them, one elected that there were other, more valuable, targets and he nodded before teleporting off of the ship. The other Sage remained, determined to see the Bullhead burning to completion.

"Did you just see that?" Roman asked as he looked from the bridge to the crashed Bullhead on the deck below him.

"Not now, Torchwick. What the, no, cancel." Winter didn't even bother looking up as she attempted futilely to get the blood-soaked communication system functioning. "It's no use, the systems have been disabled and I can't fix whatever they did to disable it." With a frustrated sigh, Winter turned from the damaged console and saw the crashed bullhead for the first time. "When did that get there?" Winter asked while Roman worked to open the door so that he could get to the crashed ship and examine up close. With a mechanical whirr, the ship's automated door opened as Roman managed to pry the severed limb out of from between the opening mechanisms that it had been shoved into. Unfortunately, Winter and Roman had arrived too late to save the bridge crew, their remains were strewn all throughout the bridge.

"About a minute or two ago, let's see if there's anyone still alive inside."

"Hold it, you don't give the orders I do," Winter said glaring at him. Obligingly Roman raised his hands placatingly and waited for Winter to take the lead and he followed dutifully behind her.

They had gotten about halfway to the crash site when the door to the Bullhead flew out and came within a hair's breadth of decapitating them. Black smoke billowed out from inside the wrecked vessel. Through the doorway teams RWBY and JNPR emerged, coughing and disorientated.

"Well, glad to see you all could come and join us," Roman said while looking around for whatever had caused the Bullhead to crash. Whoever was responsible was nowhere in sight as far as Roman could see, but he sensed the demon swirling around in the periphery, waiting to strike. The young hunters and huntresses in training didn't respond with words at first, though their expressions were priceless to see. Seeing the opportunity, Roman simply couldn't resist. He pulled Blake against him and snapped a photo of him with his other arm around her waist and her pressed against his frame. He had the mother of all shit-eating grins, while Blake was too stunned to possess any expression other than pure surprise. He immediately set that as the background for his scroll and allowed himself to revel in that petty victory. While he was doing that Winter approached them, but found herself stopped by some sort of invisible wall. Slowly the fog wall fully materialized, creating a line that bisected the ship in two. More importantly, the impenetrable wall of smoke cut Winter off from everyone else as the Crystal Sage, the one who remained behind, materialized behind her. The Sages were twisted warped beings, and as the Sage sat hunched over, cloaked in its black tattered robes and almost comically oversized hat, it looked out at them and that fact became abundantly clear. Warped by the dark corruption of the Abyss a being that had once been mere human in stature now was of comparable size to one of Atlas's Paladins. Its hands had become gnarled talons, though that did little to affect the skill with which it could wield it demonically enhanced Rapier or the dark blasphemies that it used to cast its spells.

It cast an imposing figure and radiated an aura of pure malice. Most people would have been terrified to face such an imposing figure, Winter felt a rush of relief. She'd been deprived of an opportunity to vent her mounting frustrations on something since she'd awoken this morning. Without thought to her personal well being she flung herself forward and did her utmost to tear the demonic wizard to shreds, while the rest of the ramshackle group was forced into the role of powerless spectators as the powerful Atlesian commander and ancient demented sorcerer clashed on top of the besieged warship, while underneath a trio of hunters waged a destructive crusade against the beasts that dwelled within the derelict vessel.

 **This is the last update for a while, there is a lot of work that's coming up, so I'll be writing a lot less until summer break. Once again I apologize for being so late and what's most likely going to be an extended delay for the next chapter. Until next time.**

 **Reviews:**

 **cipher111996: thank you for the brief but encouraging review**

 **Ever Professional: Thank you I was worried that scene might fall flat, glad to see it had the intended reaction.**

 **Touhou is life: only a seven? still thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, no Sun praising this chapter either, but I'm thinking that Yang's make a great sunbro when I get around to writing chapter 4.**


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